I NEWS I

From All Of Us At
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We Wish You A
Happy and Healthy
New Year

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EXTEND WARM WISHES TO
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UNDER SUPERVISION OF THE COUNCIL OF ORTHODOX RABBIS

Arab Adviser
Has Resigned

Jerusalem (JTA) — The
resignation this week of Dr.
Alexander Blei from the of-
fice of Adviser to the Prime
Minister on Arab Affairs —
a move encouraged by the
prime minister —marks a
historic change in the
treatment of Israel's Arab
population.
For the first time in the
history of the state, neither
an Arab affairs adviser nor a
single minister will be in
charge of the 700,000 Arab
citizens living within
Israel's pre-1967 borders.
The Arabs will be on their
own.
The office of Arab affairs
adviser was established in
the early days of the state, to
serve as a liaison between
the Arab sector and the
government, particularly
during the era when the
Arab citizens of Israel lived
under military rule.
Those days are long since
gone. The military govern-
ment in the Arab population
centers in Israel was
abolished in 1966 —but the
adviser's position remained.
Despite their good inten-
tions, there was little most of
the officials who served in

this capacity could do; they
had neither adequate
budgets nor the clout to
come up with more funding.
Under the new arrange-
ment, the director general of
the Prime Minister's Office
will chair a committee of di-
rectors general, represent-
ing all government min-
istries, to deal with issues
that arise in the Arab sector.
The change came about at
the request of Arab Knesset
members who argued that if
the government aspired to
count them as equal citizens,
they should be treated by the
same official agencies as the
rest of the population.
The first task of the direc-
tor general of the Prime
Minister's Office in his new
capacity was to put an end
this week to the 10-day sit-in
strike of Arab mayors in
Jerusalem. The mayors
demanded increased budgets
for their towns and villages.

After a meeting with
Premier Yitzhak Rabin,
they were persuaded to go
home, with less money than
they had wanted — but with
a new address to tun to in
Jerusalem.

Salesman Sues
Mercedes-Benz

New York (JTA) — A
former salesman for the
German luxury car
manufacturer Mercedes-
Benz has filed suit in New
York State Supreme Court,
charging that the company
fired him after he complain-
ed about anti-Semitic
harassment.
Bruce Ehrmann, the
former employee, claimed in
court papers that there is "a
custom or practice —
perhaps unconscious
—within the Mercedes-Benz
corporate structure of latent
institutional insensitivity to
discrimination against
Jews."
The behavior by Mercedes-
Benz has been "heinous and
abusive," in keeping with "a
long tradition of anti-
Semitism" at the company,
according to Mr. Ehrmann,
who worked in the
Manhattan showroom.
As evidence of the com-
pany's attitudes, he filed
with the court several
chapters from a book
published in 1990 by Ber-
nard Bellon titled, Mercedes

Mr. Bellon's book details
Mercedes' collaboration with
the Third Reich and the
company's use of tens of
thousands of concentration
camp inmates as slave
laborers in its factories dur-
ing World War II.
Lawyers for Mercedes-
Benz North America Inc.
have asked State Supreme
Court Justice Carol Arber to
strike the historical refer-
ences in the complaint.
"Mercedes-Benz
Manhattan did not even ex-
ist at the time of the Holo-
caust," argued the company
in its motion to suppress sec-
tions of the complaint, call-
ing the charges "scandalous
and prejudicial allegations
which are in no way related
to" Mr. Ehrmann's firing.
Mercedes' Manhattan
showroom issued a brief
statement saying it
"categorically denies the
allegations set forth in
(Ehrmann's) complaint."

in Peace and War

—Baruch Spinoza

An emotion ceases to be a
passion as soon as we form a
clear and distinct idea of it.