WELCOME! TOM ANDERSON National Aerobic Champion has joined international news organizations, launched a daily paper, Falastin (Palestine), with a permit from the Palestinian Authority. After being hauled in twice by Mr. Arafat's security men, he closed it. "I decided to stop before I was ordered to," he explained. "I'd rather stop being a journalist and sell tomatoes, if I can't be cred: ible in my reporting." Two voices of the Islamic op- position do still come out, how- ever. But they have learned to watch their step. Al Istiqlal (In- dependence), the organ of the ex- tremist Islamic.Jihad group, is published openly from offices in one of Gaza's main streets. It prints 4,500 copies every week and claims to sell 4,000. Last year, the Palestinian Au- thority closed it twice, once for two months, once-for 15 days. Six of its journalists spent three months in a Palestinian prison during the wave of Islamic suicide bombings of Israeli tar- gets. "We have no censor," All Saf- tawi, the paper's publisher, smiled. "It's here and it's not here." Did that mean self-cen- sorship? "Of course," he replied. "I don't give up my ideological be- lief, but rm careful how I express it. "I try to avoid any personal at- tacks on Yassir Arafat and other leaders. We reject the Oslo peace agreement. We criticize the Palestinian Authority. But we don't want to confront them." As Maher Alami put it, recu- perating in Jerusalem: "Pales- tinian journalists are not exactly the Fourth Estate. We don't have the kind of press 'that forced Richard Nixon to resign." He waxed almost nostalgic for the Is- raeli military censor: "You send them your material. They ban or approve what you send. And that's that." ❑ Senate Passes Sanction Bill Washington (JTA) — The Unit- ed States came one step closer to imposing sanctions on foreign firms that invest in Iran's oil in- dustries. The Senate passed the Iran Oil Sanctions Act in a voice vote without debate. The measure, which is sup- ported by the White House, is expected to pass the House of Representatives in the coming weeks. • In memory of the 259 people killed when terrorists blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Locker- bie, Scotland, the Senate includ- ed sanctions on firms that do business with Libya's fuel in- dustries. The vote on the measure came on the eve of the seventh an- niversary of the bombing. Under the Senate bill, spon- sored by Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., sanctioned firms would be denied access to financing sponsored by the Export-Import Bank of the United States and to licenses for exports to the United States. U.S. law already prohibits American firms from investing in Iran's fuel industries. The president could also pro- hibit mergers, acquisitions or takeovers involving U.S. compa- nies that might provide Iran with cash, as well as limit funding from American banks to sanc- tioned firms, according to the measure. Iran has desperately sought foreign capital to bail out its econ- omy and to finance its nuclear program. Tehran hopes that foreign in- vestment can make up for what the international community has denied in the areas of trade and credit. Neal Sher, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbied hard for the measure, hailed the vote as a "pivotal step in the effort to curb terrorism and the nuclear threat to the free world." "The American people are united in finally taking concrete measures to thwart the spread of this brand of evil," he said. Non-Orthodox Get Funding Jerusalem (JTA) — Advancing the cause of religious pluralism in Israel, the Religious Affairs Ministry will allocate some $160,000 to the_Reform and Con- servative movements in the Jew- ish state. Secular organizations that deal with Jewish issues from a plu- ralistic perspective are also ex- pected to receive funding. Israel's High Court of Justice previously ruled that the Reform and Conservative movements should receive funding from the Religious Affairs Ministry for Torah studies. But until now, only small amounts were disbursed in an in- formal matter. The announcement of the al- locations reportedly came in the wake of new funding criteria es- tablished by Religious Affairs Minister Shimon Shetreet, who has sought to eliminate inequities in funding for non-Orthodox in- stitutions. The allocations provoked crit- icism from Orthodox parties in Israel. Ike W0g