Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1991 Page: 4 of 24
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4 TEXAS JEWISH POST, THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1991 — IN OUR45TH YEAR!
WASHINGTON WATCH
POSTORIAL
Middle East Water
Shortages: Spur
To Peace?
With world attention
riveted on the crisis in the
Persian Gulf, Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir
■ Yitzhak Shamir
turned a few heads recently
when he suggested a
regional water summit to
discuss water shortages
that threaten to dwarf the
area’s political debate.
But to Joyce Starr, a
Middle East expert and a
leading authority on global
water problems, Shamir’s
comments were a welcome
indication that Israeli
leaders are starting to face
up to the greatest threat to
Israel’s long-term security.
“The water question is
life and death for the
Israelis,” she said. “There,
can be no solution with
the Palestinians unless
there’s a resolution of the
water scarcity they both
face. It has to be the first
thing on the agenda.”
Israel’s water problems,
Starr said, have been
exacerbated by the current
drought and by changing.
demographics.
“With the onslaught of
Soviet Jewish immigrants
and the high birth rate of
the Palestinians, Israel’s
water crisis started YES-
TERDAY,’’ she said.
“It’s already severely af-
fecting Israel’s agriculture.”
Working for regional
solutions to the problem,
Starr argued, can provide
the nucleus for a resolu-
tion of longstanding
political differences.
As a result, Starr is put-
ting the finishing touches
on plans for a regional
water summit later this
year in Turkey, under the
auspices of the Global
Water Summit Initiative,
a group she founded.
Participants will in-
clude an impressive array
of water experts along
with political leaders from
the region; the goal will be
to develop the frame-
work for a long-term,
multi-national approach
By James David Besser
TJP Washington Correspondent
to the area’s water crisis.
“It’s the first and only
initiative of its kind fo-
cusing on water,” said
Starr. “There’s no place
where this is as significant
as in the Middle East,
where it’s very possible
war could break out over
water.”
Shamir’s recent com-
ments are a hopeful sign
that people are finally
beginning to pay attention
to a problem Starr began
talking about in the mid-
1980s.
“The two groups that
seem to be the least aware
of the problem seem to be
the United States govern-
ment and the American
Jewish community,” she
said. “The Jewish com-
munity here has been
totally uninterested.
Maybe it’s that they don’t
think they have a vehicle
for making a contribu-
tion to a solution.”
Tough Times For
National Jewish
Coalition
The National Jewish
Coalition, the once high-
flying group that coalesced
around Jewish efforts on
behalf of Ronald Reagan
in the 1980s, has fallen on
hard times.
Recently, the group has
been contracting, a result
of serious money woes —
and a by-product of
growing Jewish dissatis-
faction with the Middle
East policies of the Bush
administration.
Earlier this month, the
group’s executive director,
Ben Waldman, left the
organization in yet another
indication of tough times
for the group.
But the new director of
the group plans to fight
back.
“There has been a per-
ception in recent months
that this is a time for
Jewish Republicans to go
into hibernation, to hide,”
said Matt Brooks, the
group’s new executive
director. “I disagree
strongly with that head-
in-the-sand approach.
Now, the Coalition’s role
is more important than
ever. We plan to take a
very aggressive public
role.”
The current friction
over changing U.S. Mid-
dle East policy only in-
creases the need for the
group, Brooks argued.
But one result may be a
growing emphasis on
Congress — traditionally
not a Coalition strong-
hold.
“Because of our leader-
ship, we have unique per-
sonal access to the ad-
ministration,” he said.
“On the other side, we
feel we have a unique role
to play on the legislative
side. With the current
situation, our role on
Capitol Hill becomes
especially important. ’
Brooks has worked
continuously in Republican
politics since his 1987
graduation from Brandeis
University. He served as
political director at the
Coalition for several
years, wilh brief time-outs
for work on several
Republican campaigns.
As director of the
National Jewish Coalition,
Brooks will face some
daunting challenges — in-
cluding declining funding
for the organization as a
result of the current reces-
sion.
Fighting Panic In
Soviet Jewry Movement
Soviet Jewry activists
here are taking a low-key
approach to the growing
signs of political disarray
nWWAknilwylw aw .wnratttwwwnwtwrAYsA.A .-A JYAYAEWawflraiw
■ Eduard A. Shevardnadze
in the Soviet Union.
Several months ago,
several leading Soviet
Jewry groups began quiet
discussions of contingency
plans for dealing with a
possible collapse of the
Soviet system — a collapse
that could imperil the
Jews remaining in that
country.
Now, with Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevard-
nadze’s surprising depar-
see WASH. WATCH page 22
Arab Jailed in Israel:
Journalist Or Terrorist?
The recent arrest in Israel of Radwan Abu-Ayyash, a prominent Arab militant,
has stirred controversy around the world. Abu-Ayyash has been portrayed in much |
of the media as an innocent journalist who has been jailed for his beliefs. Unfor-
tunately, very little has been published about Abu-Ayyash’s long record of connec-
tions to the PLO. , , .. .
Abu-Ayyash, who currently serves as president of the Arab Journalists
Association, has for many years been a senior editor of the Palestine Press Service, a
pro-PLO propaganda agency based in Jerusalem. Its monthly English-language
magazine, A! Awdah (The Return) openly supports Arab terrorist attacks on Israel.
As far back as 1980, then-Deputy Minister Yoram Aridor (who today is Israel’s
Ambassador to the United Nations) revealed in the Knesset that Abu-Ayyash’s
Palestine Press Service was being financed in part by the PLO-backed “Interpress
News Agency” of Italy.
Details about Abu-Ayyash’s own links to the PLO were recently published in
Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot. It turns out that Abu-Ayyash was
arrested in 1982 for possessing illegal PLO literature. He was convicted, and given a
three month suspended jail sentence. In 1987, the Israeli authorities discovered
evidence that he had links to the PLO, and accordingly ordered restrictions on his
travelling. Last year, documents in the trial of another Arab terrorist cited Abu-
Ayyash as having served (until December 1988) in the “Unified National Command
of the Palestinian Uprising,” the group that directs Arab riot activity in Israel. The
documents also revealed that Abu-Ayyash had used his journalistic abilities to help
draft “Intifada” leaflets which urged the use of violence against Israelis. Earlier this
year, Abu-Ayyash went to Tunis to confer with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and
other senior PLO officials.
When the Israeli authorities arrested Abu-Ayyash last month, they decided to
hold him in what is known as “administrative detention.” In this form of detention,
a terrorist may be held for six months at a time without trial, but a judge must first
review the evidence to determine if the suspect’s freedom would constitute a threat
to public safety. The reason Israel occasionally uses administrative detention is sim-
ple: the authorities sometimes receive confidential information from a source whose
identity cannot be revealed in court without endangering his life. Faced with the
choice of letting the terrorist roam free, or holding him without trial, the Israelis will
often choose to hold him—even if that means being criticized abroad.
Unfortunately, the American media have failed to explain the circumstances
surrounding the use of administrative detention, and have completely ignored Abu-
Ayyash’s links to the PLO.
Sabra Chartrand, reporting in the New York Times, mentioned that Abu-Ayyash
had “been in trouble with the authorities before,” but failed to provide details of his
previous PLO-related activities. She noted that he “runs a news service,” but said
nothing about the service’s pro-terrorist reporting. Injecting an editorial comment
into what was supposed to be a news story, Chartrand asserted that in view of the
deteriorating relations between Arabs and Jews, the arrest of Abu-Ayyash was
“likely to make matters worse.”
Jackson Diehl, the Washington Post’s correspondent in Israel, characterized the
arrest of Abu-Ayyash as “severe,” and reported that he will “be imprisoned
without trial in a desert camp.” Diehl failed to mention that the evidence against
Abu-Ayyash has to be reviewed by a judge before he can be ordered imprisoned.
see POSTORIAL page 23
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1991, newspaper, January 3, 1991; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth834816/m1/4/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .