Page 4 The Jewish Floridian of Tampa Friday, May 3, 1985 'Staunch Friend Of Israel* He May Not Lay Wreath On Graves of Soldiers the precious lives ln.< War II" and J^^ cemetery visit. Hrf .the Uajy- By DAVID FRIEDMAN WASHINGTON - (JTA) President Reagan, who left for Bonn on Tuesday, intends to go through with his visit to a German military cemetery this Sunday, but it is doubtful now that he will lay a wreath on the graves of the German soldiers as originally planned. This was confirmed by White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan in an appearance on CBS- TVs Face the Nation." He said that "the details are still being worked out exactly what hap- pens" when Reagan goes to the Bitburg military cemetery where some 2,000 German soldiers, including 47 members of the Waffen SS. are buried. But Regan stressed that the cemetery visit will be onlv 10 to 15 minutes, while Reagan will spend more than an hour the same day at the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. THE WHITE HOUSE aide said that the President feels "anguish" over the strong controversy that the cemetery visit has raised since the President "feels that he has been a friend, as he is, to Jews everywhere." He said Reagan has been "a staunch friend of Israel, probably the staunchest of many Presidents," and helped bring Ethiopian Jews out of the Sudan and has been working for the emigration of Soviet Jews. Reagan is "wounded in his heart" also by the charges of "insensitivity when he is a very sensitive person," Regan said. But he stressed that Reagan cannot cancel the visit which he said is part of a 10-day trip to Europe because he made a promise to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and he will "carry out his word that he will go there with an ally." REGAN DENIED that the White House had been privately encouraging Republicans in Congress to support resolutions urging Reagan to cancel the visit as a means of pressuring Kohl to withdraw the invitation. The Senate last Friday adopted a resolution by voice vote introduced by Sens. Howard Metzenbaum (D., Ohio) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) and co-sponsored by eight other senators urging the President to "reassess his planned itinerary" and "visit a symbol of German democracy." The resolution did not mention Bitburg directly, but Met- zenbaum said it was clear that was what it meant. It was supported by Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R., Kans.). The resolution came a day after 257 Congressmen signed a letter urging Kohl to withdraw the cemetery invitation. BUT WEST German Deputy Foreign Minister Alois Merles who also appeared on the CBS program, said he haa spoken to Kohl earlier, and there was "no change" in the Chancellor's position. Also appearing on tt program. Specter said that "l think there is a way" that Reagan can keep from going to the cemetery. He noted that the action in the House and Senate reflects a "very strong feeling of the American people." Specter said that he is still hopeful that Kohl would with- draw the invitation. If not, the Senator suggested the President can cancel the visit on the grounds that the President was given the wrong information about the cemetery. He said a White House official had told him that the West German government had assured them that there were no SS troopers buried at Bitburg. But Mertes said that when he represented the Bitburg area in Parliament he had not known that the SS members were buried there. At the same time, he said Waffen SS soldiers were buried in all German cemeteries, and it was wrong to find them all "collectively guilty." MERTES SAID the Senate resolution was an "insult against all former German soldiers of the second World War" since it implied all were Nazis. Specter replied no insult was intended but the cemetery visit would be "an affront" to all American World War II veterans, American Jews and Holocaust survivors and victims. Mertes said that if the cemetery visit is cancelled it would upset the German people because they would feel they are being charged with "collective guilt" for the Nazi era and "the past is more important then the last 40 years." He said the cemetery visit is "not glorifying" the deeds of the Nazi regime or even military matters. He said its purpose is to demonstrate that "during the years after the war we do everything that never again there will be dictatorship in Germany, that never again there will be a war coming from German soil." Mertes stressed that in Germany today there is "full understanding for the victims of the Holocaust particularly the Jews who were not killed as soldiers. They were simply slaughtered, murdered because they were Jews. They cannot be compared with victims of the war on the military side." IN OTHER developments, the Administration reportedly asked at least two prominent Jews Elie Wiesel and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal to go along with Reagan when he goes to the military cemetery at Bitburg. Both declined the invitation. Other Holocaust survivors have reportedly been sought to ac- company the President. They, too. have reportedly declined. Meanwhile, four prominent Republican Jewish leaders - Max Fisher, Richard Fox, Gordan Zachs and George Klein have met in recent weeks with Chief of Staff Regan and other White House officials on the Bitburg controversry. The four led the Republican National Jewish Coalition. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and a strong supporter of Reagan, added his name to the chorus of opposition to the Bitburg visit. Saying he believed the President "and-or his staff made an honest mistake," Falwell told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in a telephone message that "I think the President should admit he was wrong and I don't think it would be an indication of weakness for him to do so." THE JEWISH War Veterans' national commander Samuel Greenberg has appealed to all Americans to wear a red arm- band on May 5 to remind "us of Leaders of Synagogue and the Assembly said they"^ observe May 5 as a mourning, prayer and fa The Union of Orthodox Ui\ of the U.S. and CanaTk urged Reagan to caned Wl planned visit. Rabbi MoaJ Feinstein, president of! Union, called the proposed v! an "obscenity for the vktZ I and martyrs of various oZ tries." "* New York City CwJ president Carol Bellamy Z\ some 200 women at the Bl Zion Women's League an* luncheon in New York thai \ must demand that our Preside* I heed the call to a higher moJ value than even the values i\ reconciliation and friendshi with a former enemy." Second Stage Over Final Pullback Due End of May W per year deducted from their con.nbu.,on- far ,uh,,-,,p,.n U paper Anyone m,.lnt\, cancel .uch a whacription .hould M not.f. The Jajrlak Flor.....in Of The Federation w"n,n* " By HUGH ORGEL TEL AVIV (JTA) - An Israel Defense Force spokesman announces that the IDF has completed the penultimate stage of its withdrawal from Lebanon and is now deployed along the northern edge of the "security belt" from which it will execute its final pullback to the in- ternational border by the end of May. The IDF has left Jezzine, the northern salient, the Jebel Barukh observation post, the Lake Karoun region and the lower Bekaa valley place names associated in recent weeks with clashes and casualties. The order to pull out was given at 6 a.m. local time by Gen. Ori Orr, commander of the northern front. The last Israeli soldier was lifted by helicopter from Jebel Barukh shortly after. THE EXPENSIVE electronic surveillance equipment had long since been removed from that outpost and what installations remained were blown up to prevent their falling into the hands of terrorists. The IDF announcement confirmed a Beirut radio report that the IDF had virtually completed its withdrawal from the eastern sector of the Bekaa valley and from the coastal city of Tyre. The reports said Lebanese army units were standing by to replace the departing Israeli troops. According to the Beirut reports, later confirmed by the IDF, the withdrawal was closely guarded by armed helicopters which supervised the operation and stood by to deal with posisble emergencies. There was some guerrilla harassment of withdrawing Israeli units but no casualties. The pullback. carried out in an orderly manner, was witnessed by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin who told reporters that some time would be required to complete necessary arrangements in the security belt. He stressed that the pullback was a unilateral action accomplished without coor- dination with the Lebanese authorities. IT WAS completed on the eve of Israel's Independence Day. The final removal of IDF troops from Lebanese soil to positions behind the international border is expected to be completed before the third anniversary of the invasion of Lebanon, June 5, 1982. The IDF helicopter guarding the operation dropped leaflets to the local Lebanese population warning them not to become involved in anti-Israel activities by terrorists. They were in- formed that the Lebanese government is now fully responsible for the maintenance of peace and order in the region evacuated by the IDF. There is now, for the first time, a physical separation between the IDF and Syrian forces entrenched in Lebanon's Bekaa valley. Syria continues to occupy large areas of Lebanon. It constitutes the strongest military force in that country and, in the Israeli view, calls the tune for the government in 3 Terrorists Sentenced in Israel Friday, May 3, 1985 Volume 7 12 IYAR 5745 Number 9 By GIL SEDAN JERUSALEM (JTA, A panel of three judges, sitting in Jerusalem District Court, has passed sentences of up to three years' imprisonment on three alleged members of a Jewish terrorist underground who confessed to acts of violence against Arabs. The panel was divided over the severity of the sentence. The longest was imposed on Dan Beeri, 41, of Hebron, a convert to Judaism, who was sentenced to five years in prison, two of them suspended. He was charged with conspiracy to blow up the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine on the Temple Mount in h nmil Un Maier, 37, was sentenced to 48 months, 18 of them suspended. He pleaded guilty of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm in connection with car bomb attacks on three Arab mayors in 1980, two of whom were permanently crippled. He was also charged with illegal possession and transport of weapons amd membership in a terrorist organization. Yossi Edri, 26. was sentenced to 30 months in prison, five of them suspended. He had pleaded guilty to providing means to commit a felony, possession of arms and explosives. It was Edri who purchased four timing devices which were to have activated bombs planted in Arab buses in 1983. Beirut. POSSIBLE FUTURE movs! by Syria were discussed in sou I detail by Rabin in an interview with Israel Radio's English | language service. Rabin said that in the wake of the IDF withdrawal some Syrian1 support for terrorist activity against Israel could he expected But he anticipated no genenl confrontation with Syria. Asked what Israel would dois the event of hostile moves by Syria, Rabin replied: "It's too early to say what the Syrians will do. I tend to believe tint Syria today would like to conduct a policy that, on one hand, would encourage and support terrorist acts as long a we are in Lebanon, and maybe even against targets in Israel once we complete our redeployment along the in- ternational border. "At the same time, I believe Syria will refrain from doing anything which could bring about a direct military con- frontation between themselves and Israel. They may, here or there, move a little bit toward the south. But they know and I will not elaborate what might be intolerable to us." Rabin added that Israel would not hesitate to act against terrorist targets in areas under Syrian control, if necessary, ha" would try to refrain from at- tacking Syria directly. Readers Write EDITOR, The Jewish Floridm- The Klezmer Conservatory Band Concert sponsored by the Tampa Chapter of Hadassah was such a successful event that we wanted to thank everyone who helped make it possible the sponsors, patrons, nd benefactors, committee man- bers. The Jewish Floridian,,T* Jewish Community Center, 0d Salpeter of WMNF. and Cantor Hauben. We were delighted that the audience enjoyed this jazzy music that is being revived from our Jewish history. We hops all who attended fed proud to have helped Hadassah Medical Organization raise part of the extra funds needed for the care of the Ethiopian immigrant in Israel and we supported local businesses in the process. It is our hope that a spirit of cooperation will flourish here in Tampa so that all the events held by various organizations to enhance our Jewish life will be successful. Klezmer Concert Chairmen: ELLIE FISHMAN, RUTH GLICKMAN, And NANCY MIZRAHI