UP FRONT
Talks And Land
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Operation Desert Storm," Mr.
Medwed said.
He also said Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir is
facing an historic dilemma.
"In light of about $10
billion in loan guarantees to
Israel being considered at
this time in Congress and
the pressures of the
worldwide media," Mr.
Medwed said, "it's probably
a good idea for Israel to
agree to at least be a party to
these meetings."
Mr. Leikin said Mr.
Shamir is lucky the Knesset
is so close to a recess.
"Shamir has a breathing
spell until October," Mr.
Leikin said. "While the
government is in recess, no-
confidence motions cannot
be introduced, so there's less
danger of the Likud party
collapsing. It's unlikely any
of the right wing parties
would agree to land conces-
sions in exchange for peace."
Zack Kalaf, national pres-
ident of the Syrian Ameri-
can Council of Metropolitan
Detroit, said peace with
Israel cannot be achieved
until "Israel restores the
unalienable rights of the. Pa-
lestinian Arab people and
withdraws its troops from
territories it occupied since
1967."
"Since the 1970s, Syria
has wanted peace," Mr.
Kalaf said. "Until now,
we've seen no cause for hope.
But there's no reason to
make peace if Israel doesn't
leave the territories. We
think this is the minimum.
We're not going to allow our
government to expect less
than that."
Detroit's Syrian popula-
tion stands at 60,000 and
dates back to the late 1880s,
according to Mr. Kalaf.
In an interview on ABC-
TV's "Nightline" this week,
Bushra Kanafani, Syria's
deputy ambassador, said
that Syria wants a
"comprehensive, just and
durable peace."
However, the deputy am-
bassador refused to appear
in the same televised seg-
ment as Avi Pazner, an
Israeli spokesman.
"Is Israel prepared to
define its borders for us to
know which Israel we are
recognizing?" Mrs.
Kanafani asked. "We see all
occupied territory as a
critical element. We believe
in peace based on the U.N.
.resolutions, 242 and 338, in-
cluding the principle of
trading land for peace. We
think this is a good starting
point."
Nabeel Abraham, a Pales-
tinian American and an-
thropology professor at
Henry Ford Community Col-
lege in Dearborn, has little
faith in Mr. Shamir's
government.
"Shamir is dedicated to his
ideology," Mr. Abraham
said. "His ideology is more
important than peace or
practicality. He's willing to
undergo sanctions and war
to fulfill an ultimate destiny.
"So long as the people in
power and the middle class
in Israel are confident in the
knowledge that the United
States will back Israel econ-
omically, militarily and dip-
lomatically in the interna-
tional arenas," Mr. Abra-
ham said, "there is the
tendency to rebuff all peace
offers from Arab states and
Palestinians.
"If tomorrow Washington,
D.C., cracked the whip, or
did something substantial,"
Mr. Abraham said, "I think
the wise secretaries of
Israeli public opinion would
shift and express a different
view for the sake of a
minority view."
Since 1948 and throughout
Israel's seven wars with the
Arabs, Israel has always
called for direct negotiations
with Arab nations, said
Israel's new Midwest consul
general, Yitschak Ben-Gad.
"We've always been will-
Arrhork try D. B. Johnson. Ccpyrigitte 1991. D. B. Johnson. Distr.. by Les Angeles Tows 9,odosts.
ing to negotiate for peace,
just not with preconceived
conditions," Mr. Ben-Gad
said. "Until now, there have
been no takers. This is the
most dramatic change.
"If Hafez al-Assad is a real
assad, a lion, let him come
and be another Sadat. Begin
met Sadat face to face
without the presence of the
U.N. and without all these
power brokers and
mediators."
Mr. Ben-Gad said Israel
will negotiate every issue,
in his hometown either dead
or living elsewhere, Mr.
Silberman organized the
Zionist youth movements to
clean out the Warsaw
Ghetto and put up a monu-
ment. During the work he
uncovered the charred re-
mains of a JNF blue box.
For many years Mr.
Silberman retained the blue
box, explaining, "It was im-
portant because it proved to
me that there were Jews in
the ghetto who were Zionists
and dreamed of a Jewish
state."
Another box in the exhibit
once belonged to Bernard
Bucholdt. When evacuated
from the Lodz Ghetto, Jews
were forced to leave their
suitcases by the train and
choose just one item for the
journey. Most people picked
a warm coat; Mr. Bucholdt
took his box. Their destina-
tion was Auschwitz.
Mr. Bucholdt hid his blue
box under the floorboards in
his barracks. Sometimes at
night, he would take it out
and hold it. "It was my
mezuzah," he said. "All of
Israel, all of my Jewish
heritage was in that box."
Hadassah, ADL
Produce Package
ROUND UP
intervention agencies
throughout the United
States and Canada.
The UAHC Forms
A Winning Team
New York — The New
York Yankees and the New
York Mets have become the
first official sponsors of a
program developed by the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations to help com-
bat youth suicide.
Seven years ago the
UAHC, the central body of
Reform Judaism, estab-
lished a task force on youth
suicide prevention to
prepare materials and pro-
vide crisis intervention
guidance to prevent suicide.
Known as the "Hand of
Hope," the effort has been
carried out primarily
through synagogues and
Jewish religious schools,
though the materials are
nondenominational.
Earlier this year, the cam-
paign came to the attention
of Leonard Kleinman, chief
executive director officer of
the Yankees, who suggested
to UAHC Vice President
Rabbi Daniel Syme the pos-
sibility of using major sports
teams to promote the anti-
suicide campaign.
Exhibit Tells
Blue Box History
Rabbi Syme presents a "Gift of
Life" scroll to Leonard Kleinman.
Rabbi Syme, a Detroit na-
tive, presented framed "Gift
of life" scrolls to the
Yankees and the Mets for
their role in the campaign.
The scrolls contain the
talmudic injunction, "One
who has saved a single life is
considered as having saved
the entire world."
The teams and individual
stars will provide messages
for publication and broad-
cast to promote greater
awareness of the problem, to
alert the public to signs of
depression and suicidal
tendency, and to suggest
proper courses of action. Ma-
terials will be circulated in
synagogues, churches,
public schools and crisis
New York — A crumpled
and burnt metal box whose
blue color is barely
distinguishable is one of the
highlights of the Jewish Na-
tional Fund's Blue Box Ex-
hibition, held last month in
Jerusalem during the
Zionist General Council of
the World Zionist Organiza-
tion.
The box, along with 61
others, was discovered in the
rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto
after World War II. The ex-
hibition originally opened at
Ben-Gurion University and,
in honor of JNF's 90th an-
niversary, will travel around
Israel during the year.
The surviving blue box
from the Warsaw Ghetto
was Yehuda Silberman's gift
to the JNF. Born in Poland,
Mr. Silberman served in the
Soviet and Polish armies,
trying to make his way to
Israel. In 1944, with the war
almost over and all the Jews
New York — Hadassah
and the Anti-Defamation
League have just released a
three-part package of edu-
cation materials designed to
facilitate a better under-
standing of issues underly-
ing the intifada and the Arab-
Israel conflict.
The package includes:
1) Between Arab and Jew
by Professor Yosef Olmert,
and the pamphlet, Middle
East Timeline: A Chronology
of Modern Israel and the
Arab World in Historical
Perspective.
2) The booklet, After the
Gulf War: The Arab-Israeli
Conflict Revisited.
3) "A Search for Solid
Ground: The Intifada
Through Israeli Eyes," a
videocassette and 20-page
study guide.
For information on pur-
chasing all or part of the
package, contact Hadassah,
50 W. 58th St., New York,
N.Y. 10019, or phone (212)
355-7900.
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 11