The Jewish Times

              THE BOSTON JEWISH TIMES
 Write the vision and make it plain upon tables.
HABAKKUK 2:2
Vol. XXXIX, No. 26
Thursday, February 23, 1984
20 Adar I 5744
Moshe Arens
Talks Tough On TV
By David Friedman
.. WASHINGTON Israel Defense
Minister Moshe Arens made it
clear last week that the Israeli
army would not leave southern
Lebanon until there was a Govern-
ment in Beirut that could ensure
the security of Israel's northern
border.
"As long as there is not a
Lebanese Government that can
provide a credible commitment
that it will prevent terrorist action
against Israel from southern
Lebanon, Israel has no choice but
to keep its army deployed in
southern Lebanon," Arens said in
an interview on ABC's This Week
With David Brinkley.
"We have to protect the lives and
the safety of the citizens in the
northern part of Israel," the
Defense Minister stressed.
Arens noted that Palestine
Liberation Organization guerrilas
have been infiltrating back into
Lebanon, some of them fighting
alongside Druse soldiers in the
Shouf mountains. He said there
have been some rockets � "few
and far between" � fired at Israel
which have not caused any
injuries.
Arens said the presence of the
Israeli army in south Lebanon has
prevented the type of shelling that
rained sporadically on border
towns before Israel went into
Lebanon in June of 1982; he added
that Israel has warned the Druse to
prevent the P.L.O. soldiers from
moving south.
Arens said that the withdrawal of
the U.S. Marines will not help the
Government of President Amin
Gemayel; but the past few weeks,
he said, have shown that maybe
nothing could help Gemayel, "so
maybe it doesn't really make a dif-
ference."
Arens warned that Syria and the
Soviet Union believe the Western
nations involved in Lebanon do not
have the staying power to see the
Lebanese situation through. If this
is true, he said, it is "only a
question of time until Assad and
the Russians behind him will win."
If Syria does gain control in
Lebanon, he predicted, Assad will
then turn south against either
Israel or Jordan.
"I hope they know, I hope they
realize that Israel has the staying
power. . .the perseverance, the
stamina, the strength to beat any-
one who tries to attack us," Arens
warned.
Sorry Spectacle
The Defense Minister said it
would be a "sorry spectacle" if
Lebanon abrogated its May 17
agreement with Israel, noting that
at least in the West it was a prac-
tice to keep agreements once they
were signed. He rejected the sug-
gestion that it was a mistake to not
have included Syria in the negotia-
tions leading up to the agreement.
First of all, he said, Syria did not
want to be part of those negotia-
tions; furthermore, he claimed, to
require Syria's approval of the
agreement was like having the
U.S. and Mexico reach an agree-
ment which would then need the
approval of Cuba.
Asked about President Reagan's
peace initiative, first put forth in
September, 1982, Arens did not rule
it out flatly. He said the current
situation in Lebanon demonstrated
that it is not a propitious moment
to advise Israel "to make conces-
sions and give up territory." He
stressed that Israel will never go
back to its pre-1967 borders, saying
this was a move "no Israeli can
agree to." (JTA)
All Sides Move In As
Nature Abhors A Vacuum
By Alex Wohl
Boston Jewish Times Staff
With the crumbling of President
Amin Gemayel's Government, the
defeat (and disintegration) of the
Lebanese Army, and the departure
from the shores of Beirut of the
American and Italian Internation-
al Peacekeeping forces, Beirut has
become a political vacuum, with
each side in the conflict attempting
to gain that extra piece of power or
a strategic location that will ensure
them an upper hand in future nego-
tiations or conflicts.
'PeMfiecttve
Gemayel, fighting to keep his
title, is abandoning his goals in an
effort to pacify Syrian whims. And,
in what is nothing more than politi-
cal blackmail, both Shiite and
Druse troops are demanding goals
which are unrealistic for the
present Lebanese Government (if
it is to retain any form of integrity)
to achieve. Druse leader Walid
Jumblat has made no secret of the
fact that he wants Gemayel out,
and recent military victories over
the Lebanese Army have enabled
him to be a big talker.
The Syrians are not quite so
eager to get rid of Gemayel. They
are fully cognizant of the fact that
with him in office their ability to
pull the strings on a puppet
Government is greater than if he
were replaced by a successor cho-
sen by a Moslem faction.
Israeli Actions
The Israelis are also showing a
great deal of concern for the
security of their northern border.
Their May 17 troop-withdrawal
agreement with Lebanon, though
never having actually achieved
anything material because of
Syrian intransigence (i.e., troop
withdrawal) did show that the
Israelis were willing to negotiate.
With the Gemayel Government
now on the verge of abrogating that
treaty, future, similar agreements
will probably not be approached as
readily.
The Israelis have also stepped up
the number of attacks on suspected
P.L.O. bases in Lebanon and have
moved some of their troops
northward in a show of serious-
ness. Last Sunday, Israeli planes
bombed targets in the hills near
Beirut, and on Monday, Beirut
radio reported that Israeli tanks
and personnel carriers were head-
ed up the coastal highway from
positions along the Awali River to
the Druse-controlled town of Da-
mour. Although newspapers head-
lined the movements, Israeli
Government officials downplayed
them, terming them merely a con-
tinuation of the Israeli determina-
tion to protect the northern border.
In Boston, a spokesman for the
Israeli Consulate commented that
the recent activity was "to in-
sure that there is no settling
down of terrorists in the south of
Lebanon." He noted, "There is
nothing sacred about the Awali,"
refering to the fact that Israeli
forces had recently redeployed
south to the Awali river and that
the movement northward was
merely a continuation of Israeli
policy and not a new expansion.
Little Hope
With continued Syrian inflexibili-
ty as well as their desire for
ultimate control in the area, there
remains little hope for a peaceful
solution soon. It appears that the
Syrians (or their puppet Govern-
ment in Lebanon) will control
developments there in the near
future. Meanwhile, the Israelis will
continue to occupy the south to
insure the safety of the Galilee.
Thus it becomes a viscious circle,
with both sides saying they'll move
as soon" as the other side does. In
short, a stalemate.
Good things coming out of all the
comings and goings in Lebanon
remain few and far between. Yet
surely public consciousness now
fully understands the meaning of
ucp'oy and redeploy.
Strauss Waltz Has
Kohl On Counterpoint
AJ Congress Backs
Christian v Vs. Caldor
By Ben Gallob
NEW YORK (JTA) � Two Jew-
ish agencies seeking a Supreme
Court review of Connecticut state
court rulings which rejected the
claim of a Presbyterian store man-
ager that his religious rights had
been violated by his being compel-
led to work on Sunday, have been
encouraged by two recent legal
developments in the case.
Dennis Rapps, executive direc-
tor of the National Jewish Commis-
sion on Law and Public Affairs, or
Colpa, said one development was
the action of the State of Connecti-
cut in filing a motion recently in
support of Colpa's petition for
certiorari in the Supreme Court.
Certiorari is a petition for review.
The petition by Colpa, with which
the American Jewish Congress is
associated, was filed on behalf of
Donald Thorton, a manager for one
of the Caldor chain stores in Con-
necticut.
The other development is similar
petition for a writ of certiorari for
Thornton filed with the Supreme
Court by the Federal Department
of Justice, signed by Rex Lee, U.S.
Solicitor General.
Continued on Page Fifteen
Those Who Can ,Do; Those Who Can't, Don't
JKKl'SALKM � Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin last
Sunday rejected a proposal that he add his signature to Israel's Dec-
laration of Independence.
The proposal was made by Deputy Housing Minister Moshe Katzav
in a letter to Premier S'it/hak Shamir. Katzav said that Begin was
denied the privilege of signing the Declaration in 1948 because the
Labor establishment was opposed to the Irgun, led by Begin during
the pre-State days.
heading to the proposal. Begin told Ma'ariv, "One cannot add a
signature retrospectively. Those who signed, signed: those who
didn't sign, didn't sign." Begin said the proposal surprised him. Had
Katzav consulted him in advance, he said, he would have asked him
not to raise H.
Shamir told Katzav he would "consider" the proposal.
BONN (JTA) � Franz Josef
Strauss' unannounced, unofficial
trip to Syria has dismayed the
Bonn Government and raised
speculation as to the precise inten-
tions behind the conservative
Bavarian leader's visit to Damas-
cus for talks with President Hafez
el-Assad.
Strauss heads the Christian
Social Union, the ruling party in
Bavaria and a close ally of Chan-
cellor Helmut Kohl's Christian
Democratic Union. But Kohl was
reported to have been surprised
and angered on his return from the
funeral of Yuri Andropov in
Moscow to learn of Strauss' self-
appointed mission.
Aides to Strauss said he was re-
sponding to a personal invitation
from Assad at a time when con-
tacts between Damascus and the
West are at an extremely delicate
stage owing to the situation in
Lebanon. They refused to say
whether Strauss considered his
mission to be an attempt to
mediate between the United States
and Syria. He had not been asked
to undertake such a role.
Move To Sell Arms?
There are rumors that Strauss
may be trying to open the way for
weapons sales to Syria by
Bavarian-based arms manufac-
turers. Sources here recall that he
initiated joint Franco-German
arms sales to Syria several years
ago, a deal approved by the Bonn
Government at the,time because it
involved weapons systems jointly
produced by France and West Ger-
many.
But according to many obser-
vers, the Bavarian leader's ven-
ture into personal diplomacy in the
Mideast may be an attempt to un-
dermind the position of Foreign
Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher,
a leader of the small Free
Democratic Party, the Christian
Democrat's coalition partner.
Genscher had served as Foreign
Minister in the coalition headed by
former Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt. When the Social Demo-
crats were unseated by the
Christian Democrats in last fall's
elections, Strauss sought to replace
Genscher as Foreign Minister and
was angered when Kohl refused to
appoint him. He has since been
pressing for a Government shuffle
that would reduce the influence of
the Free Democrats, who repre-
sent a liberal element in Kohl's
coalition.
A spokesman for the Social
Democrats said today that Strauss'
trip to Syria and his other foreign-
policy activities damage West Ger-
many's reputation and are a
burden on relations with other
countries. The Foreign Ministry
made it clear that Strauss had not
been assigned any mission on the
Government's behalf.
Late in 1983, the Kohl Govern-
ment surprised Israel with an
announcement of arms sales to
Saudi Arabia. Citing a policy of
selling arms only to "areas of
non-tension," Israel, Lebanon, Jor-
dan, and Syria were specified as
tension areas and therefore ineli-
gible to buy arms from the Ger-
mans.
Our New Columnist
See Page 16
NADIA LOURIE has join-
ed the Boston Jewish Times
as a columnist dealing with
cultural, scientific, and hu-
man affairs in Israel and the
diaspora.
Mrs. Lourie currently
writes for British and South
African papers, and has her
own column in Israel's
French daily, Le Journal
d'Israel. She has also been
the Israel correspondent for
Newsweek magazine.
Born in Russia and educa-
ted in Germany and Eng-
land, Nadia Lourie married
and moved to South Africa,
where she raised two chil-
dren. She and her husband
moved to Palestine before
the 1948 war.
From her Tel Aviv apart-
ment overlooking the Medi-
terranean Sea, she is posi-
tioned to report the- moods,
trends, and interests of
Israeli society.