UP FRONT
Israel Loan Guarantee Fight
Is Expected In Congress
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
T
he well known skill of
Israel's friends in
promoting aid to the
Jewish state will be put to a
test in the next few months
as Capitol Hill activists lay
groundwork for Israel's ex-
pected request for $10 billion
in loan guarantees.
The loans, to be issued by
private banks to help reset-
tle Soviet Jews in Israel but
guaranteed by the United
States government, will pro-
vide a critical boost for an
Israeli economy staggering
under the load of thousands
of new immigrants.
But the debate will also
have enormous symbolic im-
portance. How Congress and
the administration react will
be a barometer that might
reveal approaching storms
along the Washington-
Jerusalem axis.
The stage for the upcoming
battle was set in early Mar-
ch, when the administration
and Congress negotiated an
agreement providing Israel
with some $650 million in
emergency military aid to
help cover the costs of main-
taining vigilance against
Saddam Hussein during
Operation Desert Storm.
Under the agreement,
Israel was not to make fur-
ther aid requests until after
Labor Day.
According to one joke mak-
ing the rounds on Capitol
Hill, Israel's friends have
confused Labor Day with the
corresponding holiday in
Israel, May Day. The
Israelis have not been timid
Recent history
reinforces the idea
that the Bush
administration is
willing to use aid
requests as a
cudgel.
about expressing the need
for the additional loans,
although they have not
made an official request for
the money.
But the joke belies a seri-
ous problem. With Congress
racing towards its summer
recess, and events in the
Middle East in a worrisome
state of ferment, pro-Israel
.
activists cannot afford to
wait until September_ to
prepare for an aid request
certain to be controversial.
In recent weeks, pro-Israel
groups have devised a two-
pronged strategy for fight
ahead — and for the ex-
pected crises in U.S.-Israeli
relations in the wake of the
globe-trotting diplomacy by
Secretary of State James
Baker.
First, there will be a de-
termined effort to detach the
loan guarantee issue from
the sputtering Middle East
peace process and the vola-
tile settlements question.
Already, the administra-
tion has darkly hinted that
the impending request
would be a handy tool for
forcing more Israeli conces-
sions.
A clear indication of that
position came in early May,
when William Brown, the
U.S. ambassador to Israel,
implied that the new loan
guarantee request might be
adversely affected by the ex-
pansion of Jewish set-
tlements.
Recent history reinforces
the idea that the Bush ad-
ministration is willing to use
aid requests as a cudgel. It
took the administration
more than nine months to
implement an earlier, $400
million housing loan guar-
antee for the Israelis, ap-
proved by Congress last
June.
Officially, the administra-
tion cited a succession of bu-
reaucratic obstacles to
implementing the plan. But
behind the scenes, officials
were sending signals that
implementation of the guar-
antees was tied to Israel's
settlements policies.
In this new debate, some
pro-Israel activists privately
concede that the settlements
issue provides the ad-
ministration with strong
ammunition.
"Because the loans are be-
ing used to build housing,
there's no way we can en-
tirely uncouple the loan
guarantee request from the
matter of settlements,"
warned one leading pro-
Israel activist in Washing-
ton. "Unfortunately, Mr.
Sharon has politicized the
issue in a way that will cer-
female cantors. They were
the first women to be in-
ducted to the Assembly, the
world's largest body of chaz-
zanim.
sity of Missouri, Columbia,
MO., 65211, or call (314) 882-
0861.
ROUND UP
Film To Focus
On Greenberg
Washington, D.C. — Pro-
ducer Aviva Kempner re-
cently began shooting The
Life and Times of Hank
Greenberg, a documentary
film about the baseball great
and former Detroit Tiger.
Among those Ms. Kemp-
ner will interview for her
film are Mr. Greenberg's
son, Stephen; New York
Times sports columnist Ira
Berkow, the author of a book
about Hammering Hank;
and Washington Post sports
columnist Shirley Povich.
She will continue her
interviews at the Tam
O'Shanter Country Club,
which on June 3 will host
the inaugural Hank Green-
berg Memorial Golf and
Tennis Invitational,- spon-
sored by the Michigan Jew-
ish Sports Hall of Fame.
Guests will include former
Tigers Eldon Auker, Billy
Rogell, Harry Eisenstat and
Dick Bartell.
The son of immigrant
Jews, Mr. Greenberg became
a baseball star in the 1930s.
Hank Greenberg:
Subject of a film.
In 1938, he was two homers
short of breaking Babe
Ruth's single season home
run record. He was chosen
Most Valuable Player in
1935 as a first baseman and,
in 1940, as a left fielder. He
was inducted into the Hall of
Fame in 1956.
Ms. Kempner also was
producer of Partisans of
Vilna, the documentary on
Jewish resistance to the
Nazis. Her film on Hank
Greenberg is scheduled for
release in spring 1992 on
PBS.
Cantors Assembly
Launches Drive
Los Angeles — In view of
the severe shortage of chaz-
zanim throughout the world,
the Cantors Assembly has
launched a $1 million fund-
raising drive to provide
scholarships and grants to
cantorial students and to in-
tensify recruitment efforts.
"If we can train 15 new
chazzanim a year for 10
years, we can solve the prob-
lem of synagogues without
cantors and replace those
who retire," said Cantor
Samuel Rosenbaum of New
York, executive vice presi-
dent of the Cantors
Assembly.
The Cantors Institute of
the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America,
founded in 1952 by the Can-
tors Assembly, offers a four-
to five-year course of
graduate studies leading to a
degree in sacred music and
the designation of chazzan.
Meanwhile, during its an-
nual convention late last
month the Cantors
Assembly inducted 14
Researcher Seeks
Jewish Farmers
Columbia, Mo. — Dr. J.
Sanford Rikoon, a professor
at the University of
Missouri-Columbia, is look-
ing for Jewish families who
lived on farms in the Mid-
west or Great Plains region.
Dr. Rikoon, who is writing
a book on Jewish farm
families, would like to hear
from anyone who either liv-
ed on a farm or whose
parents or grandparents
were farmers, even if only
for several years. States to
be covered are Michigan,
Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin,
Indiana, Illinois, North and
South Dakota, Kansas,
Minnesota, Nebraska and
Iowa. Requests for confiden-
tiality will be honored.
Write Dr. Sanford Rikoon
c/o Department of Rural
Sociology, Sociology
Building Room 108, Univer-
Commerce Dept.
Fines Companies
New York — Three
biomedical companies have
been fined a total of $64,500
for allegedly cooperating
with the Arab economic
boycott of Israel, the World
Jewish Congress reported
this week.
Under U.S. law, com-
pliance with the Arab
boycott is illegal, subjecting
violating companies to
criminal and civil penalties.
The three companies,
which are part of the Flow
Laboratories group, have
now entered into consent
agreements with the U.S.
Commerce Department and
have agreed to pay civil
penalties and to follow
"corrective measures" to
comply with the anti-boycott
provisions of American law.
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
11