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Serving Nebraska ^nd Iowa Since 1920
4 lyar,'S7B4, April IS, 1W4
Yom Ha'atzmaut Schedule Saturday, April 16 8:30 p.m.--Shaloni Sherman, a one-man comedy show-Israeli Style!, in the JCC auditorium. Cost is $8 for adults, $6 for students and seniors. Dessert will be served. Tickets available through JCC membership.
Sunday, April 17 Israel in Time 12:30 p.m.—Opening ceremonies with Jewish War Veterans and Boy Scout Troop 218. 12:45-2 p.m.-Israeli food "Shuk." Activities include archeological digs; Gan Hayiot (Hoich Enterprise Exotic Animals; Child Development Center art projects; layered sand art; bone magnets; Israeli flags; View Bethsaida: A Hands-On Look at the Past; JNF display. 1 p-nL-Family walk for Israel.
Holocaust Memorial Day
An estimated 250 members of the Jewish community commemorated Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) on April 7 at Beth El Synago^e. Those lighting candles in memory of the six million Jews who perished are from left, Ben Heisler, Dave Richtman, Gershon Leber, Lola Beinglas, Joachim Boin, and Miriam Grossman. The event was coordinated by the Jewish Cultural Arts Council and included a memorial service and a performance by Claudia Stevens. Story on page 2.
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1:30 p.m.--Maccabi games with Randy and Al (Health and RE.) 2 p.m.--"Israel in Time"-A production by the JCC Theater and Youth Departments. Shalom Sherman--A one-man Borscht Belt Variety Show! Fees for the program on Sunday will be for food only.
Ambiguities marl< Clinton's policy on Jerusalem
By Lany Yudelson NEW YORK (JTA) — The Clinton administration appears to have quietly changed previous American policy toward Jerusalem. In a series of small but precedent-shattering moves, the administration has indicated that it has moved closer to the Israeli position that Jerusalem is one united city and the country's eternal capital. It has done so while publicly denying any shift has occurred. For its efforts, the Clinton administration has been condemned in the Arab world for accommodating Israel — and been condemned by many in the Jewish community for not moving far enough. In meetings with Jewish leaders last month, Clinton seemed to become the first sitting U.S. president to endorse Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital, by saying he stood by his remarks on the topic fVom two years before. Then, he had told Jewish leaders that "I recognize Jerusalem as an undivided city, the eternal capital of Israel, and I believe in the principle of moving our embassy to Jerusalem." But then he was on the campaign trail, and for a presidential candidate, he was bre*king no new ground. "Every candidate has told us that," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of M^jor American Jewish Organizations. "Thii is the first time a president onoe elected had said it," said Hoenlein. A month earlier, the American ambassador to Israel broke long-standing tradition and crossed the unmarked 1967 border to address a group of visiting Je wish kaadert. American ofTlcials had in the past demandad that groups meet them in the western part of Jerusalem, fearing that conducting ofndal business in east Jerusalem would convey assent to Israel's anntxatlon of the area aflar the 1987 Six-Day War.
In March, for the first time in nearly a decade, the United States demanded a paragraph-by-paragraph vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution, in order to abstain from a paragraph.referring to Jerusalem as "occupied" territory. The United States had several times in the past approved similar resolutions. This time, Ambassador Madeleine Albright said the resolution would have merited an outright veto had the offensive language been in the operative part of the resolution, rather than in the preamble. The operative portion of the resolution, which the United States supported, condemned the February 25 massacre in Hebron and called for an international presence in that West Bank city. Neither Clinton's assurances to American Jewish leaders, nor the Security Council abstention, nor the ambassador's talk in east Jerusalem, changes the fact that the American embassy remains in Tel Aviv. That public denial of Jerusalem's status as Israel's capital is an outgrowth of international refusal to accept Israel's 1948 conquest of western Jerusalem, which the United Nations had voted should be internationalised. Nor has the bottom line been modified: America believes the issue should be settled by negotiations, and that while America supports "a united Jerusalem, it doesn't say under Jewish sovereignty," as Abraham Poxman, national director of the Anti- Defamation League, explained. Since 1940, negotiations over Jerusalem have seemed an unlikely prospect, and a safe place to assign a diplomatic hot potato which aroused strong emotions among both Jews and Arabs. But now, say Foxman and other American Jewish leaders, the question of Jerusalem is taking on renewed importance since the city is formally on the agenda for "final-status* negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, as agreed to in th^ declaration of principles signed by the two sides.
Those finahstatus issues arc scheduled to be{ in the third year after Israeli withdrawal from Jericho and the Gaza Strip is concluded. And in this context, the details of American policy "make a big difference," said Hoenlein. "It makes a big difference in terms of what the demands of the Arabs will be, what their expectations are. It has a big effect on the Arab perception of the pressure they think they can bring to bear," said Hoenlein. The ^ab world was quick to see the nuances of the American abstention from the Security Council resolution and the statements to Jewish leaders as policy shifts. After Israel Radio reported that Clinton had endorsed Jerusalem as Israel's eternal, undivided capital in one of his meetings with Jewish leaders, the Cairo paper Al-Ahram Ai-Masati spoke out in alarm. "If this statement is true," wrote the paper, "then it means there has been a radical change in the U.S. stand on the Jerusalem issue and it also represents a real catastrophe for all the Arab and Islamic countries and the (Palestine Liberation Organization) too." The tower house of Jordan's parliament passed a measure March 22 condemning the U.S. abstention from the Security Council vote, saying it signaled a "clear chsnge in the American stand." And King Hussein of Jordan pointedly attacked PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat for insisting that Jerusalem be in the Security Council resolution and provoking the American abstention. At the same time, the stealth policy shift by the United States — if it is indeed that — may also illustrate something about the diplomatic sensitivities concerning Jerusalem in general. Because the administration has been stoutly denying there has been any change in its policy on Jerusalem. (Continuod on page 2)
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