Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 January 1986 — Page 17

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Israel's economic rebound

By SAMSON KRUPNICK The year 1985 was for Israel a year of progress on virtually all fronts, as I reported in a previous column. Under a fragile Unity Government, oft-

shaken but never toppled by extremists in both the Labor Alignment and the Likud, Israel recorded gains in the political arena worldwide, but particularly in its relations with the United States and other western powers. On the military-security front, Israel consolidated its forces, repelling terror attempts from Lebanon. Desperate terror attacks on passengers in Rome and Vienna, hijacks of a liner at sea, and hijacking of an Egyptian plane in Malta, galvanized world opinion against terrorism and moved the United States to take positive steps • to confront sources of terrorism. Israel's most important progress was on the critical economic front. A freeze on wages, prices and taxes, with proper adjustments, and tight supervision, at long last dealt a resounding blow to that scourge of the Israel economy — inflation. In the closing four months of 1985, inflation was down to 1-11/2 percent per month, an achievement not attained in over 25 years. This gratifying phenomenon plus others, particularly the cutting of the budget by some $1.5 billion in the past two years, has enabled the economy to weather the storm and steered it in the direction of substantial recovery. The Central Bureau of Statistics released some very encouraging figures for the year 1985. The Gross National Product rose by 2 percent with the output of the industrial section up 3.6 percent. The demand in the private sector continued its decline by 2 percent after an 8 percent drop in 1984 following a rise in 1983 of 5 percent. The public sector demand, excluding defense, also dropped by 2 percent. Exports increased by 8 percent totalling a high of $6,073 billion. Industrial exports totalled $4,289 billion, 7 percent over 1984, while diamond exports, depressed in the past seveid

years, showed a healthy gain of 22 percent over 1984 reaching a record $1,263 billion. Tourism continued its steady growth topping the 1,400,000 mark almost 60 percent of them being Christians. With the curtailing of Israeli summer touring abroad, the net savings in foreign currency was over $500 million. A major achievement by the government was in the balance of payments account — foreign currency reserves increased by $500 million, i.e., income from

exports and grants were larger than payment to creditors abroad. Contributing to this achievement was the reduction of the trade deficit by almost $1.00 billion in 1985 and in the past tow years by $1.7 billion.

Continued from page 5 was a partisan of a viewpoint — but also a man of learning and integrity — and in his partisanship he saw the other side for what (in his view) it was, namely, censors and inquisitors: "There are men in the Committee of the so-called Jewish Publication Society of America who would today suppress a reformatory publication, just as was done by that hypocrite S.A. Tiktin in Breslau, who, like a censor of the Inquisition, prohibited the Jewish printer Sulzbach from publishing M. Brueck's Rabbinical Ceremonies (1836) because cant and hypocrisy were unmasked in that book...But Brueck's book was published after all in Breslau and was the indirect cause of breaking Tiktin's influence..." And on and on. Well, there it is. Out of the pages of a book 1 happened to stumble across in the Brown library, I find a kindred soul: someone with his own ideas, protesting ucainst what the thinks is the unfair disposition of a perfectly honorable submission to what he had assumed was a professional and honorable publisher for Jewry. Happily, Rabbi Schreiber published his book in Spokane,

Noteworthy was the continuing support of the public despite an erosion of some 15 percent in real wages. Prime Minister Peres reported with obvious satisfaction, "we are progressing nicely. The G.N.P. is rising, the balance of payments is improving, exports are growing and unemployment is under control. We have reason to be optimistic." Finance Minister Modai was more cautious, "we must continue austerity, curb spending, limit imports, cut the budget and spend vacations at

Under a fragile unity government, oft-shaken but never toppled by extremists, Israel recorded impressive gains.

Jewish publishing

home — or we will be in trouble again by 1987." Somewhere in between these two statements lies reality. (Samson Krupnick may be reached at 22 Pinsker, Jerusalem 92228 Israel)

and it got its reading. Reform Judaism survived its pariahship in the Jewish Publication Society an today enjoys its appropriate voice there as everywhere else. So who won and who lost? Rabbi Schreiber did not lose, and JPS did not win. Still, my own experience with JPS is not all that different, and other serious writers find little reason to submit manuscripts to that dreadful outfit. So a tradition, established at the beginning, substituted politics for probity, what is opportune for what is fair, private privilege for the public interest in free and open discourse. Anyhow, when I tried to write a book with the then-JPS editor, I couldn't get him to accept my phone calls when I needed his help, so I went to Cambridge University press and got the help I needed. And they accepted my book and are glad to have it. In all, we really do live in a free and open society — no thanks, to be sure, to the institutions of the Jewish community. Two and seventh eighth’s (out of three) cheers for America. Why hold back the other eighth? Well, there is the matter of the high cost of kosher meat.

Israel’s democratic press censorship

By SIMON GRIVER Press censorship in a democracy must tread a delicate path, protecting the nation's security while not stifling the freedom of the news media. Israel, which is on a constant war footing, is in a more difficult and vulnerable situation than perhaps any other democracy. Yet, the country’s press remains seemingly vibrant with an investigative cutting edge that has uncovered information injuring the careers of numerous politicians and military men. Nevertheless, it is difficult to know just how much the censors are suppressing. Repressive or Moderate? Palestinians and their supporters claim that Israeli censorship is repressive. On the other hand, a British government commission of enquiry offered the Israel Defense Forces as a commendable example of moderate censorship during the war in Lebanon while castigating the British army for its over-zealous censorship during the Falklands War in 1982. Major-Genereal Yitzhak Shani, the Chief Censor of the IDF does not like using political labels to describe his task. "I don't agree with the label of more liberal, or less liberal," he says. "It doesn’t seem to me that it suits the issues at hand. We are striving to make censorship logical." "Logical" by Shani's definition is that nothing liable to harm Israel's security can be published. There is currently a list of 69 subjects that cannot be discussed in the press. These include the obvious, like the number of troops in a particular region, as well as matters that do not deal directly with the military but could harm Israel if explicit information reached the wrong hands, like details of the nation's energy reserves. Included in the category of information that can be suppressed are details of Jewish emigration from countries of distress (Ethiopia, for example), discussions about security matters at Cabinet meetings and the amount of Israel's foreign currency reserves. Censorship is itself a subject that is censored (this article will be carefully scrutinized by the censor's office) as is the full list of 69 subjects liable to censorship, which would itself identify potential weaknesses to Israel's enemies. As the country has grown stronger, the number of subjects

on the censor's list has been whittled down from more than 200 items to the present 69. At one time, for example, details of oil tankers traveling north from Eilat were censored — information no longer considered sensitive. Major-General Shani feels that if the list got any shorter there would be virtually no censorship left Voluntary cooperation Surprisingly to many outsiders, the Hebrew press in Israel cooperates with the censor under a voluntary agreement signed in 1949. That agreement has no legal status, though security regulations from the time of the British Mandate do enable the government to punish those who ignore censorship requirements. Moshe Zak, a member of the editorial board of the daily paper Ma'ariv, explains why the Israeli press is so acquiescent towards the censor's demands. "We are not talking about a distant war,” he says. "Here we are in our homes, defending our existence and surrounded by enemies. For this reason we appreciate and we obey the censorship rules. Enemy flying time to our population centers is a few minutes. So we still have to take precautions. We started with the danger and with the need for censorship in the cradle and even before our birth." The foreign press voluntarily agrees to censorship control because it realizes that should it raise the anger of the IDF, it will be barred access to potential stories. Formal punishment for ignoring the censor is not harsh for first offenders. In the midst of the Lebanese War in 1982, ABC transmitted an interview with PLO chairman Yassir Arafat from Tel Aviv because satellite links were not available from Beirut. The transmission was made even though the censor had forbidden it on the grounds that Israel did not have to help its enemy to prime TV time. As a result, ABC had its satellite links suspended for several weeks. Items inciting hatred The Arabs press operating from East Jerusalem is obviously less cooperative than the Hebrew press. All material must be submitted to the censor and items which incite hatred of Israel are frequently censored. One censor in the Jerusalem Continued on page 10

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