with Jordan's king signing accords with
Israel in Washington, bombs in London
destroyed part of Israel's embassy and
others blasted the offices of several other
Israel-related organizations. Fifteen
people, in toto, were injured. But the
White House signing was not deterred.
Nor was Mr. Rabin's enthusiasm
dimmed.
"The entire State of Israel," he told the
king, "is shaking your hand."
Black-Jewish Wars
J
and then from April to May. And despite
the fact that Mr. Arafat balked at the
May 4 signing in Cairo of documents that
granted some measure of Palestinian
self-rule. Decorum at the Cairo signing
was shattered when Mr. Arafat
refused to initial some maps
designating the autonomous re-
gion around Jericho. In an al-
most vaudevillian turn of events
(were the potential conse-
quences not so serious), the
principals at the ceremony left
the stage along with Mr. Arafat,
where they reassured him that
the documents included explic-
it references to further negotia-
tions on the size of the Jericho
self-rule area. A few minutes
later, Mr. Arafat returned,
smiled and signed — and Is-
rael's foreign minister, Shimon
Peres, said, "Today, we declare
that the conflict is over."
But not quite. In this age, re-
gional disputes do not respect
the demarcations of their re-
spective regions. On July 18, a
bomb in Buenos Aires destroyed
the central headquarters of Ar-
gentina's Jewish community,
killing 29 people and destroying
the seven-story building. The
next week, almost simultaneous
ust as Yassir Arafat has been the
worrisome figure for Jews as far as
Israel's parlous existence was con-
cerned, Louis Farrakhan became
the worrisome figure for American Jews
concerned with black-Jewish relations.
The charismatic head of the Nation of
Islam adroitly moved himself from the
wings of national life to center stage.
Mr. Farrakhan's foray into broader
legitimacy this year began when Rep.
Kweisi Mfume (D-Md), chairman of the
Congressional Black Caucus, made a
"covenant" with him in late September
that ushered him into the broad tent of
mainstream black leadership — and in-
furiated many Jews, blacks and mem-
bers of Congress. Even the New York
Times said Mr. Farrakhan had "mugged"
the caucus.
Then came the ADL's full-page ad in
the Jan. 16 New York Times that ex-
cerpted an anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic,
anti-white, anti-gay speech that the
national spokesman of the Nation of
Islam gave at an obscure New Jersey col-
lege. In the aftermath, the black-Jewish
barometer went off the scale. The pain
on both sides was almost palpable as
both sides pondered whether their
once-healthy alliance had finally self-
destructed.
The truce — of sorts — that finally set-
tled in was shattered in June when Min-
ister Farrakhan attended in Baltimore
the first session of the national black
leadership conference sponsored by the
National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People. Jews and others
Terror, interfaith reconciliation, messianic disappointments: Bombs devastated Jewish complexes in London (far left)
and Buenos Aires (left). Pope John Paul H (top) called Jews "our elder brothers in faith." And Lubavitch Chasidim
have to adjust to the death of their rebbe (above).