TOR THE RECORD

FOR THE RECORD

To Bitburg, or not to Bitburg? Washington Post/ABC News poll, taken two weeks before cemetery visit, had 51 per cent opposed to visit and 39 per cent in favor. New York Times/CBS News poll, taken day after cemetery visit, found respondents evenly divided: 41 per cent for, 41 per cent against. . . . Whatever most Americans think of visit, presidential pollster Richard Wirthlin says visit created antagonisms “stronger than we are able to measure in survey research” within American Jewish Community. . . . Nathan Perl- mutter, national director of the Anti- Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said the “President has a new debit in his ledger: Bitburg. But as we all want to be judged by our full records rather than our worst lapses, so should a President be judged. Bitburg evidences an insensitivity to the victimized dead. The miraculous airlift of Ethiopian Jews from the Sudan and the defense of Israel reveal a great sensitivity to the living and the future.” . . . Succumbing to the goyim? Industry Minister Ariel Sharon declared on Israeli radio that Labor Party of Prime Minister Shimon Peres “does not know how to stand up to goyim.” If Menachem Begin were still prime minister, Sharon said, he would have spoken out against Bitburg. . . . Yossi Sarid, leftist member of Israeli parliament, had different explanation for Israeli silence on visit. He told protest rally in front of U.S. Embassy that Israeli government had been “overcome by silence” because of the $1.5 billion in emergency economic aid U.S. recently agreed to give Israel. (Latest installment of U.S. aid means Israel will receive $7.1 billion in aid from U.S. for fiscal years 1985 and 1986.) … In search for “good German” to honor, Elie Wiesel, chairman of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, suggested Reagan go to grave of Pastor Martin Niemoller, a WW I German submarine commander who was pacifist in WW II. Niemoller, it turns out, has already been honored, by Soviets and North Vietnamese. He received two Lenin Prizes from USSR and went to Hanoi to receive honors for his anti-American activities during Vietnam War.

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FOR THE RECORD

To Bitburg, or not to Bitburg? Washington Post/ABC News poll, taken two weeks before cemetery visit, had 51 per cent opposed to visit and 39 per cent in favor. New York Times/CBS News poll, taken day after cemetery visit, found respondents evenly divided: 41 per cent for, 41 per cent against. . . . Whatever most Americans think of visit, presidential pollster Richard Wirthlin says visit created antagonisms “stronger than we are able to measure in survey research” within American Jewish Community. . . . Nathan Perl- mutter, national director of the Anti- Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said the “President has a new debit in his ledger: Bitburg. But as we all want to be judged by our full records rather than our worst lapses, so should a President be judged. Bitburg evidences an insensitivity to the victimized dead. The miraculous airlift of Ethiopian Jews from the Sudan and the defense of Israel reveal a great sensitivity to the living and the future.” . . . Succumbing to the goyim? Industry Minister Ariel Sharon declared on Israeli radio that Labor Party of Prime Minister Shimon Peres “does not know how to stand up to goyim.” If Menachem Begin were still prime minister, Sharon said, he would have spoken out against Bitburg. . . . Yossi Sarid, leftist member of Israeli parliament, had different explanation for Israeli silence on visit. He told protest rally in front of U.S. Embassy that Israeli government had been “overcome by silence” because of the $1.5 billion in emergency economic aid U.S. recently agreed to give Israel. (Latest installment of U.S. aid means Israel will receive $7.1 billion in aid from U.S. for fiscal years 1985 and 1986.) … In search for “good German” to honor, Elie Wiesel, chairman of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, suggested Reagan go to grave of Pastor Martin Niemoller, a WW I German submarine commander who was pacifist in WW II. Niemoller, it turns out, has already been honored, by Soviets and North Vietnamese. He received two Lenin Prizes from USSR and went to Hanoi to receive honors for his anti-American activities during Vietnam War.