UP FRONT
Prospects Are Dim For
The Loan Guarantee
,N-
American Jewish groups, no longer out
front, are saying Israel needs to deal
directly with Washington.
/- JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
or Jewish activists who
are busy figuring out
how to pry $10 billion
in loan guarantees from a
balky Congress and a
balkier administration, last
week's events in Israel rep-
resented another big dose of
bad news.
The new concessions to far-
right parties that will funnel
more money into West Bank
settlements and the new
round of expulsions were
widely viewed as desperate
attempts by Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir to keep his
frail coalition from collaps-
ing.
But the fact that Mr.
Shamir's actions were polit-
ically motivated provided
little comfort to pro-Israel
activists who see no indica-
tion that President Bush has
changed his mind about
linking the guarantees to
Israel's settlements policies.
"It defies all logic," said
one top pro-Israel activist
F
here. "They insist they need
the $10 billion — and then
they do things that are ab-
solutely guaranteed to in-
furiate the administration
and reduce support in Con-
gress. It's as if the Israeli
leadership is incapable of
thinking more than 24 hours
ahead."
The new crisis for loan
Trench warfare
over the loan
guarantees could
fuel anti-foreign aid
sentiment.
guarantee proponents was
the top item on the agenda
at a meeting of the leader-
ship of the Conference of
Presidents of Major Ameri-
can Jewish Organizations
last Friday.
What emerged was a con-
sensus that if Israel wants
the $10 billion in guar-
antees, its leaders will have
to deal directly with the ad-
ministration.
Instead of the kind of the
massive grass roots effort
that characterized the first
round in the loan guarantee
fight, the Jewish community
will try to convince the
Israelis to go directly to the
administration and try to
cut a deal.
That position was relayed
to the White House during a
"get acquainted" session
between White House chief
of staff Samuel Skinner and
leaders of a handful of Jew-
ish groups, led by the Con-
ference of Major American
Jewish Organizations.
"One of our goals was to
let the White House know
that while there is blanket
support for the loan guar-
antees, we do not want a
repetition of September's
confrontation with the pres-
ident," said one participant
in the meeting. "We wanted
to make it crystal clear that
we are not mounting a cam-
paign against the president
over this issue."
Implicit in this new, low-
key strategy are two uncom-
fortable realities.
The first is that it will take
Artwork horn the Los Angeles Tunes by Barbara Cummings. Copyright. 1991, Barbara Cummings Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
significant Israeli conces-
sions on the issue of set-
tlements to salvage at least
part of the $10 billion
package of loan guarantees.
"If those guarantees are to
be forthcoming, the state of
Israel has to negotiate an
agreement with the ad-
ministration that both can
live with," said Henry
Siegman, executive director
of the American Jewish
Congress. "It is very clear
now that Israel cannot have
the loan guarantees on the
terms it has demanded; it
cannot have the guarantees
and continue the policies of
unrestrained settlement ac-
tivity. There is a broad con-
sensus about this among
Jewish groups."
Rep. Larry Smith, D-Fl.,
suggested that Israel should
consider possible com-
promises, including a re-
quest that the U.S. stretch
out the $10 billion loan
guarantee over 10 yearS, in-
stead of five.
Israel's ambassador to
Washington, Zalman
Shoval, alerted his govern-
ment last June to the idea
that the loan request would
not be approved unless
Israel changed its set-
tlement policy. Jewish
groups, chastened by their
stunning defeat in
September, are more deter-
supplies. Eye doctors inter-
ested in volunteering their
professional services may
write the NACOEJ, 165 E.
56th St., New York, N.Y.
10022, or call (212) 752-6340.
books are "still coming in
. . . The average order value is
in the $60 range."
ROUND UP
Union To Open
Moscow Office
New York — Martin Hon
vvitz, a professor of Russian
language and literature, has
been named director of the
World Union for Progressive
Judaism's Moscow head-
quarters, slated to open this
month.
Working with Congrega-
tion Hineni, the first recog-
nized Reform temple in
Moscow, and the Vaad
(council), the central Jewish
communal body in the
former Soviet Union, the
World Union office plans to
establish Sunday and Jew-
ish day schools, theater
groups and cultural centers.
"We must recreate Jewish
institutions that have lain
dormant for seven decades,"
said WUJP President
Donald Day. "We must help
the younger generation gain
a sense of who they are as
Jews."
A State Department inter-
preter whose family came in
1912 from Russia to
America, Mr. Horwitz holds
a bachelor's degree, with
honors, in Russian language
and literature from Stan-
ford, and a master's degree
in Russian literature from
Columbia University. He
has taught Russian lang-
uage and literature at
Cornell, Bennington, Swar-
thmore and New York Uni-
versity.
Project Helps
New Immigrants
Moses saw the Promised
Land but was forbidden to
enter. Deborah Solomon, a
30-year-old Ethiopian
woman, entered Israel but
was not able to see it. She
was totally blinded by
cataracts.
Ms. Solomon was one of
14,000 Ethiopian Jews
airlifted last May on Opera-
tion Solomon to Israel. Blind
for three years, she was led
onto the plane at the Addis
Ababa airport by members
of her family.
Today, Ms. Solomon can
see. Jerusalem is a reality to
her thanks to Project VI-
Deborah Solomon
SION, a volunteer program
of the North American Con-
ference on Ethiopian Jewry.
Like other Operation
Solomon immigrants, Ms.
Solomon and her family
arrived without funds in
Israel. Her cataract surgery
was arranged and paid for by
Operation VISION.
Organized and directed by
Dr. Stephen Kutner, the
program gives free eye care
including prescription
glasses, medication and
state-of-the-art laser
surgery.
Project Vision is supported
by donations and by gifts of
equipment, medicines and
Members Receive
Curious Catalog
New York — Members of
the Book of the Month histo-
ry club recently received a
catalog of books with titles
like Holocaust on Trial, The
Hoax of the 20th Century,
Israel: Our Dilemma and
Churchill's War.
The error arose when the
Book of the Month Club
rented its list of names of
book buyers to Noontide
Press in Costa Mesa, Calif.,
which published the above
titles, according to a report
in The Post and Opinion.
"We didn't see as much of
the catalog as we should
have before renting the
names," said Colleen Mur-
phy, spokesman for the club.
Tom Marcellus of Noontide
Press said orders for his
Kosher Restaurant
Opens In Hawaii
Honolulu — Hawaii has
just opened its first glatt
kosher eating estab-
lishment, the Shaloha Res-
taurant, where managers
promise that patrons will
"always be greeted with
`Shalom' and 'Aloha.' "
Located at the Island Col-
ony Hotel in the Waikiki
area of Honolulu, the res-
taurant seats 45 and is
under the supervision of the
Rabbinical Council of
California. It will be open for
breakfast, lunch and dinner
from Sunday through Fri-
day, and on Shabbat for
those who have made reser-
vations.
For information, contact
the Shaloha Restaurant, 445
Seaside Ave., Honolulu,
Hawaii, 96815, or call (808)
926-3354.
Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
11