_d"7 IS • THE • SEASON 4COLIDAY WALK AROUGH g ECEMBER ATURDAY, 12:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M. • ,97RUNK YHOWS • SAMPLINGS • WORKSHOPS • WAROLS & ?OOKIES • ISCOUNTS • WIBBONS & WRAPPINGS • 1991 LOOMFIELD Pi LAZA atuG FREE WHILE SUPPLIES LAST XECOME ART OF THE c/RADITION 431,601( k ■ ■ # Ptafr - Telegraph at Maple ■ III Come Visit Our Shower Enclosures Custom Railings Beautiful Showroom Etched And Carved III Glass Furniture III 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed III No Deposit Required Glass Designs FREE In-home Design Service 20 % OFF 20 % OFF ALL MIRROR WORK Any Tub & Shower Enclosure with this ad • "flint 1991 3011 Haggerty Rd. 102 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1991 And New Mirrored Bifolds with this ad • Thru 1991 (1/4 Mite North of Pontiac Trail) 669-8088 Italian Activist To Appear At Israeli Convention Rome (JTA) — The suc- cessor to Italy's once power- ful Communist Party is taking steps to patch up any differences it had with Israel and strengthen its ties with Jews. "We are retying loose ends with the whole of Jewish culture, one of the historic cultures of the left," declared Piero Fassino, a Democratic Party of the Left activist who was heading a delegation to the opening of the Israeli Labor Party's convention in Jerusalem. The Democratic Party of the Left, or PDS, is the name chosen by the former Italian Communist Party after the 1989 revolution in Eastern Europe, when it declared itself part of the Social Dem- ocratic mainstream in Europe. Recently, it "twinned" with Mapam, a small left- wing party in Israel. The PDS delegation plans to meet with all shades of polit- ical opinion in Israel, Mr. Fassino told the daily L'Independente. At its peak in the decades after World War II, the Italian Communist Party was the largest Communist party in the West and second in size only to the Christian Democrats in Italy. About a third of Italian voters regularly voted Communist. Although the Italian Communists largely ignored the Moscow party line, they subscribed to the pro-Arab policy of most of the Com- munist world, especially after the Six-Day War. "For Italian Communists, as for those all over the worlds Israel was the enemy, the expression of American imperialism in the Middle East," L'Independente wrote. "In that period, to be Jew- ish and a Communist in Ita- ly was almost impossible," Mr. Fassino told the news- paper. "The majority of the Jewish members felt forced to choose one side or an- other. Those who remained in the party left the (Jewish) community. Those who chose the community left the party." A change began in recent years. In 1987, Italian Communists, led by Mr. Fassino, set up a working group "for relations with the Jewish world." Actually, the first change of attitude occurred in 1982, when Communists were deeply impressed by the huge turnouts of Israelis protesting the invasion of Lebanon. "We began to measure ourselves against an image of Israel that was different than what we had until then," Mr. Fassino said. Contacts, including visits and exchanges, began in 1986. They culminated when PDS Secretary General Achille Occhetto visited Israel last April. He met not only with lef- tists and Palestinians but with Prime Minister Yit- zhak Shamir. He also paid a visit to the World Jewish Congress headquarters in New York, at the suggestion of Tullia Zevi, president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Italy. Mr. Fassino said PDS policy toward the Palestin- ians has not changed. "It is summed up by the slogan of the Israeli pacifists and by the Palestinians involved in dialogue: Two peoples, two states." Budget Bill Creates Crisis Jerusalem (JTA) — Repre- sentatives of the Likud-led coalition withdrew the budget bill from the Knesset agenda to forestall a vote that might have toppled Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's government on the eve of bilateral peace talks. The budget, which must be enacted by the end of the year, has to pass its final readings in the plenum. But what should have been a routine roll call became a coalition crisis when the Na- tional Religious Party threatened to cast its five votes against.the measure. The NRP, which is af- filiated with the religious Zionist movement, Marachi, has refused to support a budget that includes "special funding" for in- stitutions of the non-Zionist Haredi bloc, consisting of the Orthodox Shas, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah parties. The Haredi parties will not vote for a budget that does not contain the special fun- ding. In either case, the government probably would fall. Mr. Shamir offered a com- promise acceptable to the Haredi parties. But the NRP balked, and the vote was postponed again.