EDITORIAL

Misguided Pressure

The Bush administration created an-
other Mideast hostage last week when it
linked approval for a $10 billion loan guar-
antee to Israel's participation in next mon-
th's scheduled peace conference. It was a
poor decision morally, and perhaps tac-
tically as well.
By asking Congress not to act on Israel's
request for 120 days, so that it could be
dealt with after the opening of the proposed
conference, Mr. Bush sought to ensure the
stability of the Arab-Israeli peace talks. In-
stead, he achieved the opposite effect by
shaking the foundation of trust and caus-
ing Israeli officials to worry that the presi-
dent may have disqualified himself as a
fair mediator.
For months, Israel has insisted that the
loan guarantee was a humanitarian, not a
political, issue. Israel is seeking loans to
help pay for the absorption of hundreds of
thousands of Soviet Jews. There would be
no cost to the American taxpayer. The only
cost of the guarantees is a small percentage
of the bank loan, which is set aside in a re-
serve fund in case any country defaults on
its loan repayment — something Israel has
never done.
The United States has a moral obligation
to help Israel create new employment op-
portunities for the new immigrants. After
years of urging the USSR to honor its
commitment to human rights and free
Soviet Jewry, the U.S. is duty-bound to do
its share to help Israel, which is eager to
assume a responsibility that may well have
been Washington's if Israel had not sought
the refugees.
Instead of separating the loan guarantee
from the Arab-Israeli conflict, the ad-
ministration has joined the two issues in a
heavy-handed way. Sen. Barbara
Mikulski, D-Md., who recently visited
Israel, called the administration's delay
request "flawed" and urged Mr. Bush not
to "capitulate to the Arabs' desire to attach
conditions to self-help assistance."
Ironically, it appears that it is Mr. Bush,

not the Arab states, who is insisting on a
freeze on Israeli settlement building as a
pre-condition for the peace talks. The
Israelis have said that settlement activity
should be negotiated as part of the peace
talks and not tied to their efforts to absorb
up to one million immigrants in the next
three years.
For now, Israel appears to be caught in a
no-win situation. If Jerusalem continues to
push for Congressional approval of the loan
guarantee and musters the two-thirds
majority needed to override a presidential
veto, it will have alienated the administra-
tion and that would not bode well for the
climate at the peace talks.

If Israel withdraws its request, it will
signal weakness to the Arab states and
may embolden them to place further
pressure on Israel through the U.S.
The natural tendency for Israel's leader-
ship is to resist this American pressure,
expand settlement activity and threaten to
withdraw from the peace talks if the loan
guarantee is delayed. But as long as Israel
is dependent on American assistance, fi-
nancially and diplomatically, this would be
a mistake.

What should Israel do? Make the best of
an unfortunate situation by taking Mr.
Bush at his word and underscoring that it
expects administration approval of the
loan guarantee in three months.
For years, Israel's battle cry on behalf of
Soviet Jewry was "Let my people go." Now
that Soviet Jews have been allowed to
emigrate, but are in need of employment
and housing assistance, that cry has
become "Let my people grow." Washington
should recognize its responsibility and help
that growth by approving the loan guar-
antee. As long as the administration
resists, Israel will be convinced that the
U.S. deals with its strongest Mideast ally
through pressure rather than support.
That is a shame, but also, it seems, a real-
ity.

Lithuanian Nationalism

Reports that Lithuania , has pardoned
confessed Nazi collaborators lends
credence to fears that the dissolution of the
Soviet Union could unleash long-held anti-
Semitic sentiments previously supressed
by official Kremlin policy.
According to the reports, Lithuania has
exonerated more than 1,000 of its citizens
who confessed in Soviet courts to aiding the
Nazi effort. Among them are some who are
reputed to have murdered thousands of
Jews and others during World War II.
The reason given for the action is that
the confessions were extracted by force in
what amounted to Soviet kangaroo courts,
the rulings of which have no legal standing
in the new, anti-Communist Lithuania.
Moreover, the certificates of exoneration-
issued by the chief Lithuanian prosecutor
entitle the recipient or their heirs to

6

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1991

receive compensation for wrongful im-
prisonment.
While Lithuania has taken issue with
the reports, its president, Vytautas Land-
sbergis, has admitted that "we can imag-
ine that among the individuals repressed
by the Soviets there were also Holocaust
criminals."
Jewish groups have reacted with
outrage, and rightly so. "What they are do-
ing is an insult to history and a very ex-
treme miscarriage of justice," said Rabbi
Marvin Heir of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Los Angeles.
Kent E. Schiner, president of B'nai B'rith
International, said that nationalist fervor
appears to be riding roughshod over justice
in the newly independent Baltic republic.
He urged that those pardoned be retried in
Lithuanian courts.

LETTERS

Crown Heights
Editorial Wrong

Your editorial Aug. 30
regarding the violence in
Crown Heights is similar to
the following scenario: A
woman was being mugged
while onlookers failed to stop
the attack. As the woman
writhed in pain, bloodied and
dirtied, the onlookers said,
"We'd have stopped him but
the woman never said hello to
us and besides she had been
mean to the mugger."
Similarly, the Jewish com-
munity watched while Crown
Heights was ravaged and The
Jewish News spent 40 percent
of its editorial berating
Lubavitch's relationship with
the do-nothing observers and
not being nice to its attackers.
The proper reaction should
be: stop the mugger, force him
to pay restitution and
apologize. Then, if you have
to, teach the victim manners
behind closed doors!
You should have shouted
from the rooftops that an
outrage was being done. The
blacks were looting and
plundering, incited by hate-
mongers. You should have
protested why no sane black
voice other than the mayor's
was heard and even his voice
was weak. Until mass protest,
organized by Michigan
Lubavitch took place, nothing
was done to stop the violence.
The truth is, that the
organized Jewish community
has taken the approach of
running scared to the
suburbs, all the while
preaching black-white under-
standing. This, while tens of
thousands of elderly and poor
were left behind to be victims
of crime. In the community's
absence, tens of millions of
dollars invested in the Jewish
community were lost.
Lubavitch did not march to

that tune. We stayed, we
flourished and the cost of
housing has increased
dramatically. Stores are open-
ing, people are moving back
into the "old" neighborhood.
In fact, the Crown Heights-
black property owner is thrill-
ed that Lubavitch is in his
neighborhood.
It is the hate-monger who is
incensed because: 1) Lubavit-
chers weren't intimidated by
him and 2) as Clarence Page
said. on Sept. 2nd "the
Lubavitchers have succeeded
in doing what so many blacks
have failed to do . . . The
Lubavitchers have found
ways to draw power from
something other than their
victimization . . . they have
become self-sufficient"
(Detroit News op-ed page).
These are the real reasons for
this hatred.
The "organized Jewish com-
munity" you speak of should
be ashamed of its totally
passive posture while Crown
Heights was mugged.

Rabbi Chaim Bergstein
Farmington Hills

U.S. Chutzpah
And Israel

The past few years have
shown incredible chutzpah on
the part of the United States
against Israel.
Until the invasion of
Kuwait, the U.S. was a
staunch supporter of the
"moderate" Iraqis — not on-
ly financing Iraqi grain pur-
chases so as to free funds for
the Iraqi war machine, but
also providing technology,
material for biological war-
fare (including anthrax!) and
a cold shoulder to Israeli con-
cerns about the growing
evidence of a major Iraqi
build up.
Continued on Page 10