Former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro called for an international convention against terrorism and urged the United States government to act instead of merely talk about this scourge. She recalled that President Reagan pledged firm action against terrorism in the after math of the Teheran hostage crisis.
Ferraro, a former member of Congress, made her remarks yesterday at a luncheon given by Deputy Foreign Minister Ronnie Milo, a Likud MK. She is in Israel on a five-day visit.
In a meeting with Premier Shimon Peres, Ferraro reported on her lengthy discussions in Moscow recently with President Andrei Gromyko and the Soviet expert on American affairs, Georgi Arbatov.
She later told reporters that she had found the Soviets unexpectedly “open” on the issue of Soviet Jewry. However, she cautioned that it does not mean there would necessarily be a relaxation in emigration policy.
Ferraro said Gromyko noted that large-scale Jewish emigration could mean a “tremendous brain drain” for the Soviet Union. Arbatov said that Jewish emigration applications caused resentment in the USSR because they often came from university-educated people who had edged out others from an academic education, she reported.
Ferraro said she would announce next month whether she would run for the U.S. Senate next year. She is expected to run against Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, a New York conservative Republican.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
