8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 23, 1997 NATION/WORLD Netanyahu comments offend JERUSALEM (AP) - As if a bogged- down peace process, a spy scandal and a looming political crisis weren't enough, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was weathering a new storm yesterday for saying his dovish opposition has "forgotten what it means to be Jewish." Netanyahu appeared unaware his comments were being picked up by a live microphone during a synagogue service Tuesday night. Within hours, they were broadcast as the lead item on TV and radio newscasts, raising a furor. "The people on the left have forgotten what it means to be Jewish," Netanyahu told Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri, the Sephardi spiritu- al leader whose blessing was crucial for Netanyahu's razor-thin victory over Shimon Peres in 1996. The rabbi leaned toward the prime min- ister and nodded slightly, and Netanyahu continued sardonically: "They think that if we place our security in the hands of Arabs, the Arabs will look after us. We'll give them part of the land and they will look after us. Who has ever heard anything like it?" Having just survived an outcry over his government's failed attempt to assassinate a leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas in Jordan, Netanyahu found himself once again facing questions over his judg- ment. Opposition leader Ehud Barak said the prime minister's latest blunder called into doubt his fitness to be prime minister. "More and more people among Netanyahu's supporters are saying the job is two or three sizes too big for him," Barak said. Newspaper editorials yesterday excoriated Netanyahu. "Here, the prime minister can fall flat on his face an infinite number of times and still spring back to life. ... Netanyahu continues to be the Humpty Dumpty who always manages to put himself back together again," wrote commentator Gideon Samet in the Haaretz newspaper. The prime minister fought back, saying his words were taken out of context and portraying himself as a victim of the media. "The incitement against the government and the prime minister continues incessant- ly and without restraint," he told Israel radio. Many blame Netanyahu for the bitter seven-month breakdown in the peace process, which restarted only earlier this month under the auspices of U.S. envoy Dennis Ross. When he was the right-wing opposition leader, Netanyahu strongly opposed the 1993 Oslo Accords granting the Palestinians autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. As prime minister he has continued the peace process, but his policies contributed to its unraveling. The prime minister trails opposition leader Barak in most polls. Elections are scheduled for 2000, but many predict his fractious parliament coalition might col- lapse sooner. Earlier this month, Israeli president Ezer Weizman canceled a trip to China scheduled for December because he reportedly believes Netanyahu's govern- ment won't survive Parliament's winter session, which will tackle critical debates over the annual budget and a controversial religious law. Netanyahu has promised to back pro- posed legislation that would formalize Orthodox control over conversions to Judaism and ban non-Orthodox Jews from serving on religious councils. That promise came after religious parties which keep Netanyahu in power threatened to topple his government. The move is likely to alienate American Jews, who predominately belong to the more liberal streams of Judaism. AP PHOT Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with people In the Jerusalem crowd after acci- dentally uttering some controversial remarks about Judaism during a synogague service Tuesday night. China warns U.S. to stop meddling as Jiang visit nears WASHINGTON (AP) - A week before Jiang Zemin meets President Clinton at the White House, the Chinese warned the U.S. government yesterday against meddling in domestic dealings from Tiananmen to Tibet. "We oppose any interference in China's internal affairs," Embassy spokesperson Yu Shuning told reporters at a news conference. Yu also cautioned the government to provide a safe environment for Jiang's week-long visit beginning Sunday in Honolulu. His itinerary includes sever- al speeches, including one at Harvard University where protests are expected. Human rights groups have promised to follow Jiang, whom Yu insisted is look- ing forward to "extensive contacts with all American people." "We are guests of the American gov- ernment, so we hope the U.S. govern- ment will do a good job so their so- called dissidents will not realize their aim of disrupting this state visit and dis- rupting U.S-Sino relations," Yu said. "Everything should go smoothly." State Department spokesperson James Rubin said Jiang would get ade- quate protection, but he noted that peo- ple have a right in the United States to openly protest. "America is a democracy, and we are not seeking to infringe in any way on the rights of Americans to have their voice be heard in whatever way is permitted by a local jurisdiction," Rubin said. "And the fact that the Chinese president is here doesn't change that principle upon which this nation was based." In one area of contention, Yu said China objects to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's plan to appoint a U.S. coordinator to Tibet, possibly by Nov. 1. The coordinator would encour- age the Chinese to hold autonomy talks with Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled his mountain region in 1959 after the communist government crushed a rebellion by his Buddhist fol- lowers. "I think it's a problem for us," the embassy spokesperson said in an unusually candid exchange about Chinese views on irritants in the U.S.- China relationship. "That kind of appointment constitutes a sort of inter- ference into our internal affairs, so we are opposed to that." On Tiananmen Square, Yu defended the Chinese military crackdown on democracy demonstrators in 1989. He said Jiang doesn't plan to talk about it with Clinton during their Oval Office meeting on Wednesday, although the U.S. administration brings up human rights at most every meeting. This will be the first U.S.-China summit since the bloody episode, which Jiang once described as "much ado about nothing" angering the West. Hundreds of people may have been killed and thousands jailed. "I'm afraid that particular issue will not be discussed before the two presidents,"Yu said when asked about Tiananmen. "Facts have shown the Chinese government was forced to take radical measures to maintain order and society stability so that our economic development would not be interrupted. "And the facts have shown that since then China has opened even wider to the outside world, and our economic development has realized a high rate of growth. So those mea- sures have been successful." Indeed, the Chinese economy has grown by an average of almost 10 per- cent a year for several years. At the same time, the U.S. trade deficit with China was widening, reaching $39.5 billion in 1996 and an expected $44 bile lion this year. Yu promoted a Chinese trade mission currently in New York, which hopes to negotiate up to $4 billion in U.S. deals ahead of the summit. Putting a positive spin on the sum- mit, Yu said China and the U.S. govern- ment should focus on areas of coopera- tion, particularly global security. U.S. officials have been delivering the same message. 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