RIP FRONT
U.S.-Israel Relations
Take A Quick Nosedive
JAMES D. BESSER and
IRA RIFKIN
Special to The Jewish News
he hot and cold rela-
tionship between the
United States and
Israel cooled again this
week, thanks to Israel's
move to expel four Palestin-
ians and the U.S. decision to
support a U.N. Security
Council resolution critical of
the deportations.
In less than a week, the
good feelings resulting from
the round of meetings bet-
ween President George
Bush, Israeli prime minister
Yitzhak Shamir and Soviet
foreign minister Eduard
Shevardnadze seemed con-
siderably dimmed.
The Palestinians just
deported by Israel were
leaders of Hamas, the
Islamic fundamentalist
group that claimed credit for
the Dec. 14 knife-attack at a
Jaffa factory that left three
Israelis dead.
The Israeli action incensed
Bush administration offi-
James D. Besser is Washing-
ton correspondent for The Jew-
ish News. Ira Rifkin is assis-
tant editor of the Baltimore
Jewish Times.
cials. They had hoped the
Bush-Shamir summit would
result in a period of relative
quiet in relations between
Washington and Jerusalem,
allowing the U.S. greater
leeway in its attempts to
hold together the Persian
Gulf coalition against Iraq.
The immediate result of
the deportation decision was
an abrupt halt to U.S. efforts
to avert a damaging resolu-
tion in the Security Council.
The U.S. considers depor-
tations to be in violation of
international law governing
the treatment of persons liv-
ing in occupied territories.
Israel, meanwhile, considers
deportations — as long as
they are not done en masse
— to be a legal and effective
meastu-e for dealing with Pa-
lestinian terrorists.
Israeli defense minister
Moshe Arens, speaking on
Israeli television to a nation
both worried and angered by
the worsening cycle of at-
tacks, warned that more
Arabs will be deported if
they are connected to at-
tacks against Jews, despite
the strain on U.S.-Israel re-
lations.
The deportation marked
the first time in 16 months
that Israel has expelled Pa-
lestinians suspected of in-
The good feelings between Mr. Shamir and Mr. Bush seem to have dimmed.
The good news is that the
resolution relegates a call
for an international peace
conference on the Middle
East to a non-binding state-
ment that would be issued
by the Security Council pres-
ident.
The resolution is also
carefully worded so as not to
establish any link between
the gulf crisis and the
Israeli-Palestinian situa-
tion. To link the two, both
Israel and the U.S. believe,
would encourage Saddam
Hussein in his attempts to
split the U.S.-led Gulf coali-
tion.
At press time, the Security
Council had yet to act on the
often postponed resolution.
In other developments,
feelings remained high
about the outcome of the
unexpected meeting bet-
ween Mr. Shamir and Mr.
Shevardnadze, the highest-
level contact between Israel
and the Soviet Union since
1967.
When the meeting was
announced, Washington's
pro-Israel community was
swept by rumors that the
session would result in a
quick restoration of full dip-
lomatic relations. ❑
The Makuyas plant trees in Israel.
Gilboa mountain range,
where they met with
Makuya students studying
at the kibbutz's Hebrew
language ulpan. More than
500 Japanese youngsters
have completed the ulpan
since the first class opened
in 1963.
Menachem tree planting
center on Jerusalem's
western outskirts.
The Makuyas took part in
their 33rd annual
pilgrimage to express their
solidarity with the State of
Israel.
Before planting trees in
the Nakahira Masaru
Grove, named in honor of,a
recently deceased member of
their movement, they un-
furled colorful banners in-
scribed in Hebrew, English,
Japanese and Russian, and
entertained downtown
Jerusalem with traditional
Israeli pioneering folk songs
and dances.
A highlight of the group's
trip to Israel was a visit to
Kibbutz Hevzi-Bah in the
Intermarriage
Hotline Opens
New York — The New
York-based Association of
Jewish Outreach Profes-
sionals has opened its
regular number, (212) 221-
AJOP (2567), as a hotline for
any Jew interested in learn-
ing more about Judaism.
The AJOP, a network of
some 2,000 outreach profes-
sionals throughout North
America, created the hotline
in response to increasing
intermarriage rates in the
Jewish community.
AJOP members can direct
callers with questions about
intermarriage to outreach
professionals, and will pro-
vide counsel and direction.
You Mean They
Know Yiddish, Too?
New York — Of course
they speak Yiddish in New
York — but do they speak it
at the Pentagon, too?
Among the Yiddish
speakers of the world: Colin
Powell, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In a letter to the Miami
Jewish Tribune, Mr. Powell
said, "I did gain a practical,
working knowledge of
Yiddish as a youngster in
the South Bronx from a Jew-
ish shopkeeper. This knowl-
edge grew as a result of
exchanges with my Jewish
friends in the area and still
often comes in handy."
Another Yiddish speaker
who might come as a sur-
prise is actor Michael Caine.
Though not himself Jewish,
Mr. Caine was raised in a
Jewish neighborhood out-
side London.
volvement in terrorist ac-
tivities and "anti-Israeli in-
citement."
About 60 Palestinians
have been expelled by Israel
since the start of the three-
year-old intifada.
According to reports, the
U.S. now supports a U.N.
resolution that deplores the
deportations, asks U.N. pro-
tection for Palestinians and
includes east Jerusalem in
its definition of the occupied
territories.
Israel has annexed east
Jerusalem and considers it
an integral part of its capital
city.
ROUND UP
Rare Manuscripts
Made Available
Jerusalem (JTA) — Under
an agreement just concluded
between Israel and the
Soviet Union, the vast
treasure of Hebrew
manuscripts ensconced in
the Leningrad Library will
be made available to Israeli
scholars for the first time.
The pact between the Rus-
sian National Library in
Leningrad and the Jewish
National and University
Library of the Hebrew Uni-
versity in Jerusalem repre-
sents a milestone in Hebrew
manuscript research, said
Professor Israel Shatzman,
director of the Jerusalem
library.
The Leningrad Library
contains thousands of rare
Hebrew manuscripts which
originated in Syria,
Palestine and Egypt and
date from as far back as the
10th century. Many are one
of a kind.
Among the collection are
documents originating from
the Cairo Genizah. A
genizah is the burial place of
unusable Hebrew books. The
Cairo Genizah preserved
knowledge of Jewish life in
the Egypt of the 11th
through 13th centuries.
Under the agreement bet-
ween the Soviet and Israeli
libraries, all the Hebrew
manuscripts in the Len-
ingrad collection and their
17,000 catalog cards will be
placed on microfilm and sent
to the Jerusalem library for
use by scholars in Israel.
The agreement also pro-
vides for an exchange of
researchers, librarians and
other experts, and of various
types of information and
publications.
Japanese Plant
Trees In Israel
Jerusalem — Japanese
citizens affiliated with the
pro-Israel Makuya move-
ment recently planted pine
saplings at the Jewish Na-
tional Fund's Kiryat
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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