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794 N. Woodward Ave.
608 S. Woodward Ave.
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(5 Blks. S. of Maple)
644-6667
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A
dministration officials, pre-
viously burned by Presi-
dent Hafez Assad's broken
promises, reacted warily
to reports that the Syrian leader
is ready to negotiate with Israel
without prohibitive preconditions,
and that acting Prime Minister
Shimon Peres is ready to try a
broader approach to the stalled
talks.
The assassination of Israeli
Prime. Minister Yitzhak Rabin,
officials here believe, may have
prompted Mr. Assad to realize
the window of opportunity for
peace with Israel — and good re-
lations with Washington — is
closing rapidly.
"There's guarded optimism
about what we're hearing from
Damascus," said a source close to
the administration peace process
team. "Assad seems to be worried
that he may have missed the
train. But with Peres preoccupied
with putting together a govern-
ment and broadening his base of
support, there's a question of just
how fast he will want to move on
the Syrian track."
Special Mideast envoy Dennis
Ross, who will embark on a Dam-
ascus- Jerusalem shuttle mission
next week, briefed the Peres gov-
ernment about the rumblings
from Syria this week.
"Last spring, Rabin decided
that the Syrians were not willing
to give him enough to bring to Is-
raeli voters in a referendum,"
said Robert 0. Freedman, acting
president of Baltimore Hebrew
University and a leading Middle
East expert. "So he put the ne-
gotiations with Syria on hold.
Now, Assad may realize that
with Rabin gone, Peres will have
to take an even tougher line. So
he has to be forthcoming if he
wants to keep the process going.
That may be what we're seeing
this week."
Mr. Freedman suggested Mr.
Peres is unlikely to pursue the
Syrian track until after the Pales-
tinian elections in January; oth-
er observers suggest it's unlikely
the hints of a new Syrian flexi-
bility will bear fruit unless Assad
makes some dramatic public ges-
tures.
"If there is a real possibility of
a breakthrough on the Syrian
track, I have to believe that the
Israeli government will pursue
it, despite any political factors,"
said Martin Raffel, director of the
Israel Task Force of the Nation-
al Jewish Community Relations
Advisory Council (NJCRAC)..
"But it's not at all clear what
these signals mean. We have
heard this kind of thing before."
Peace Support
Even before the assassination,
the National Jewish Communi-
ty Relations Advisory Council
(NJCRAC) was planning a day of
advocacy for the peace process.
Now, the Conference of Presi-
dents of Major American Jewish
Organizations and the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) will join wii h NJCRAC
in a demonstration of solidarity
with the Israeli government in
an event to coincide with acting
Prime Minister Shimon Peres's
visit on December 10.
"Peres is very well known and
respected in Washington," said a
close observer of the Middle East
scene here. "But the ties between
Clinton and Rabin were some-
thing special. Peres can't repli-
cate those bonds — but he can
make sure he and the president
are on the same wavelength."
Religious Equality Surprise
After months of internal wran-
gling between groups on the
Christian right, a "Religious
Equality" amendment to the Con-
stitution has finally surfaced in
the House.
Last week's action by Rep.
Henry J. Hyde, R-l11., surprised
Jewish groups, which strongly
oppose the effort to change the
Constitution to expand the right
of religious expression in public
forums.
Originally, the amendment
was supposed to focus on the is-
sue of school prayer, a top . prior-
ity for a number of Christian
groups. The task of cobbling to-
gether an amendment was as-
signed to Rep. Ernest Jim Istook,
R-Okla., one of the most conser-
vative members of Congress.
But Mr. Istook quickly ran into
trouble. Some Christian activists
wanted strong language sanc-
tioning school prayer. But others
wanted a more generic amend-
ment that would avoid the polit-
ically explosive issue.
The GOP leadership held a se-
ries of hearings around the coun-
try to build a case that the
amendment was needed because
of pervasive discrimination
against students on religious
grounds; instead, Jewish activists
argue, the hearings demonstrat-
ed that such cases were few and
far between, and were usually
caused by local officials who mis-
understood current law.
Finally; donserva.ive groups
turned to Ifyile, whose amend-
ment shifts the focus from prayer
to government benefits. The
amendment establishes the idea
that government aid to religion
does not constitute an "estab-
lishment" of religion — the crux
of the debate over aid to parochial
institutions.
"This amendment isn't about
God, it's about mammon," said a
congressional staffer involved in
the debate. "If it passes and is rat-
ified, it would immediately le-
galize parochial aid. At the same
time, it would put an end to all
the creche and menorah cases."
But advocates say the amend-
ment simply puts religion on a
par with other forms of speech,
making the proposed amend-
ment far more difficult to fight,
Jewish leaders concede.
Mainstream Jewish groups
have insisted that religion should
be treated differently; the First
Amendment, they say, mandates
that religious speech be clearly
separated from government ac-
tivity.
"School prayer is not men-
tioned," said Mark Pelavin,
Washington representative for
the American Jewish Congress.
"But this amendment would al-
low student-led prayer in many
situations, and prayer at gradu-
ations and sporting events. At the
same time, it casts a much wider
net. So this amendment, which
is exactly what the Christian
Coalition promised in their Con-
tract with the American Family,
is especially dangerous, in our
view."
Bad News on Immigration
Next week, a Senate subcom-
mittee is due to mark up a mea-
sure introduced by Sen. Alan
Simpson, R-Wyo., that would re-
sult in sharp reductions in the
number of legal immigrants al-
lowed to enter this country.
The measure is troubling for
the Jewish community because
it would make it much harder for
close relatives of earlier immi-
grants to get in, thereby under-
cutting the "family reunification"
policy that has been a major fac-
tor in the movement of Jews from
the former Soviet Union to this
country.
Mr. Simpson has also intro-
duced a companion measure
wrapping legal and illegal immi-
gration into one package — a
merger that has Jewish groups
up in arms.
"The Simpson bill continues
the pattern we saw in the House
— of a broad retrenchment on im-
migration policies," said Richard