1 INSIDE WASHINGTON

JAMES D. BESSER

Washington Correspondent

Was Saudi Arms Sale
Cut Just A Diversion?

T

he administration
may have used some
slick political sleight
of hand in announcing its
scaled-back $7 billion arms
sale to Saudi Arabia. But
some pro-Israel legislators
were not dazzled by the
trick.
Last week, the administra-
tion revealed that its pro-
posed $23 billion arms sale
to the Saudis had been cut to
a mere $7 billion, with the
remainder to be sent to Con-
gress sometime in January.
"It's still a very damag-
ing and a very frightening
proposal," said Rep. Ben
Cardin (D-Md.) in an inter-
view last week. "I feel that
the administration is using
the Desert Shield operation
as a cover for doing what it
has always wanted to do —
sell more arms to the
Saudis."

Rep. Ben Cardin:
Not dazzled.

Rep. Cardin pointed out
some inherent contradic-
tions in the administration's
justification for the sale —
including the fact that even
though the proposal is being
touted as an "emergency"

sale to meet Saudi Arabia's
immediate defense needs,
many of the weapons will
not be ready for delivery for
at least a year.
But Rep. Cardin indicated
that the unfolding Gulf
crisis —and the administra-
tion's backpeddling from
their initial proposal — will
make it very hard to win a
resolution of disapproval in
Congress.
One unknown in the
emerging battle is the posi-
tion of the American-Israel
Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC). According to some
critics, AIPAC was slow to
oppose the original $23
billion proposal.
"I don't think AIPAC was
as quick as they could have
been from the beginning,"
said Morrie Amitay, the
dean of pro-Israel lobbyists
and a former AIPAC exec-
utive director. "Right now, I
don't think it's clear what
they plan to do with this
newest proposal."

ADL Fact-finder Finds
She's Extremist Target

Mira Boland, fact-finding
director for the Anti-
Defamation league's civil
rights division, has one of
the toughest behind-the-
scenes jobs in Washington.
Ms. Boland monitors the
activities of extremist, anti-
democratic and anti-Semitic
groups. In that position, she
sometimes becomes the
target of the organizations
she is assigned to watch —
which is exactly what has
happened with the organiza-
tion led by Lyndon
LaRouche.
In a recent half-page ad in
the New York Times, the
LaRouche organization de-
scribed a vast conspiracy to
silence the erstwhile presi-
dential candidate and self-
described political prisoner
who is currently doing 15
years at a federal prison for
tax evasion and mail fraud.
And prominently men-
tioned in the advertisement
was Mira, Ms. Boland.
Despite her cool profes-
sionalism, Ms. Boland ad-
mitted to feeling some
discomfort at her status as a
target.
"It's sometimes upsetting
to read the scurrilous
nonsense they put out," she
said, referring to allegations
that ADL is linked to
organized crime as well as
charges that ADL had cor-
rupted the government's
strike force.
"Sometimes there's a

flicker of concern that
somebody might actually
believe this stuff. At the
same time I must confess to
getting a perverse sort of en-
joyment in reading that sort
of nonsense."
ADL's interest in the
LaRouche group goes back
almost two decades.
"Until the mid '70s, it had
been a left wing organiza-
tion," Ms. Boland said. "But
then it began developing re-
lationships with far-right
groups, including Liberty
Lobby, the largest and best-
financed anti-Semitic group
in the country. It also de-
veloped relationships to peo-
ple running paramilitary
training programs in the
South; LaRouche people
underwent their training."
The group, Ms. Boland
said, also developed some
amorphous ties to the
government of Iraq.
The alleged anti-Semitism
in the evolving LaRouche
ideology, Ms. Boland said, is
particularly striking in view
of the large number of the
group's elite who are from
Jewish families.
"Anti-Semitism appears to
have surfaced within the
LaRouche organization by
about 1973," Ms. Boland
said. "It appears to have
originated as a way of gain-
ing control over the Jewish
members, of intimidating
the Jewish members into

working even harder for
their great leader."
Later, Ms. Boland said, the
anti-Semitism became more
overt and more "demonic,"
possibly in an attempt to
cultivate the far-Right.
If ADL was interested in
LaRouche, the reverse was
also true; the Virginia-based
group, which is now backing
LaRouche's bid for a House
seat, has unsuccessfully
sued ADL four times.
"They do it in order to cost
us money, to cost us profes-
sional time, to divert us from
our real work," Ms. Boland
said. "It's one of the modern
hazards of this business."

Lemon
Copters?

Several weeks ago, the ar-
rival of several Apache
helicopters in Israel created
a national sensation. The
machines, the first in
Israel's arsenal, were seen
as a tangible sign of continu-
ing U.S. willingness to
maintain Israel's qualitative
military edge in the region.
But a recent study by the
General Accounting Office
suggests that the ultra high-
tech weapon may be some-
thing of a lemon.
According to the GAO
report, the Apache requires
repairs after an average of
only two and a half hours.

New B'nai B'rith Head
Tightening Groups' Belt

Kent Schiner, the new
president of 'B'nai B'rith
International, is moving like
a man possessed as he tries
to cope with the organiza-
tion's growing financial
woes.
One result may be an
altered focus for the group.
B'nai B'rith, Mr. Schiner
said, will place a new em-
phasis on family issues, one
of the decade's hottest polit-
ical topics.
"We voted at our conven-
tion to create a national
commission on family
issues," said Mr. Schiner,
who lives in Baltimore.
"We're interested in looking
at intermarriage, at the
problems of single paren-
ting, at a whole array of
things that are important in
American life."
Mr. Schiner denied that
the shifting focus would
dilute the group's recent
emphasis on high-profile
international issues. But the
additional domestic focus
will help the group build up
its strength at the grass-
roots level — a key ingre-
dient to B'nai B'rith's recov-
ery, according to Mr.
Schiner.
"B'nai B'rith, as an organ-
ization, has always adapted
to the times," he said. "At
one time, we had orphans'
homes, then veterans'
facilities. As needs change,
the organization needs to
change."
On the financial side, Mr.
Schiner expects B'nai B'rith
to slim its payroll through

Kent Schiner:
Massaging the budget.

attrition and early retire-
ment.
"Whether or not there will
be staff reductions is still to
be seen," he said. "We're
still massaging the budget."
Also, Mr. Schiner is ap-
proaching corporations and
foundations, looking for
grants to support B'nai
B'rith's youth and continu-
ing education programs — a
major change for the group.
The B'nai B'rith presiden-
cy has quickly enveloped Mr.
Schiner's life. "The
adrenalin and excitement
keeps me going," he said.
"This position gives me a
unique ability to influence
this organization, to
motivate, to push in certain
directions. That's something
I want to use creatively."

Working To Feed
Hungry On Yom Kippur

Last week around the
nation, there were trucks
parked behind hundreds of
Reform synagogues on Yom
Kippur — the work of the
Religious Action Center in
Washington, which put
together a model nationwide
program to help feed the
hungry.
"We asked all 830 member
congregations to distribute
paper grocery bags on Rosh
Hashanah," said Rabbi
Lynne Landsberg, associate
director of the RAC, a divi-
sion of the Union of Ameri-
can Hebrew Congregations.
"Then, we asked rabbis to
announce that on Yom
Kippur, people should bring
the bags back, filled with
groceries for local food pan-
tries."
Food was then delivered to

officials of local charitable
groups, who distributed- it to
the hungry. Some congrega-
tions chose to send food to
anti-poverty groups; others
provided groceries to AIDS
food pantries, which help
people with AIDS cope with
the poverty that is often a
by- product of the fatal
disease.
So far, there is no word on
exactly how many congrega-
tions actually collected food.
But Rabbi Landsberg ex-
pected that several hundred
synagogues would par-
ticipate.
"It's not enough to sit
around in sack cloth and
ashes," she said. "You have
to feed the hungry. That's
important all year. But for
Jews, it is especially impor-
tant at this time of year."

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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