While “gravely concerned” over the success Arab threats have had curtailing Soviet Jewish immigrant flights to Israel via Hungary, the Israeli Cabinet was buoyed Sunday by reports that the flights might be restored and that other routes and means of transportation may become available.
A source of optimism was a remark by visiting Hungarian minister of agriculture Szabo Hutter, who said the Hungarian state airline, Malev, would soon reinstate its charter flights carrying Soviet emigres to Tel Aviv.
Malev ended the flights last week, after the extremist Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine threatened terrorist attacks on airports and aircraft carrying Soviet Jews to Israel.
Malev also called off scheduled flights to Israel that carried immigrants.
Although the Hungarian foreign minister, Gyula Horn, publicly criticized the airline Sunday for surrendering to terrorist threats, he did not say the government would overrule it.
Malev asked the Soviet airline Aeroflot on Thursday to stop flying Israel-bound Jewish emigres to Budapest in order to change planes. The Soviet authorities, importuned by the Arab states and the Palestine Liberation Organization, promptly complied.
BAN ON ONE-WAY TICKETS
The Soviets announced Thursday night that Aeroflot would no longer sell one-way tickets to Jews bound for Israel via Hungary. The ban applies to flights to Budapest from Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.
But there had been rumors about Soviet barriers to Jewish emigration to Israel even before Thursday, and the relation between the Hungarian and Soviet decisions was not clear.
Moscow’s action came despite assurances to a Jewish group Thursday from Yuri Dubinin, the Soviet ambassador to Washington, that the Malev decision was in no way related to overall Soviet policy on Jewish emigration.
Dubinin told the group that Soviet policy allowing Jews to emigrate to Israel remains unchanged.
Dubinin’s assurance was reported by Shoshana Cardin, chairwoman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, who headed a joint delegation of the National Conference and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at a meeting with the Soviet envoy.
HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, urged President Bush on Sunday to use his good offices to convince the Soviet government “to give assistance to the flow of Soviet Jews to Israel rather than to limit it.”
The letter, signed by HIAS President Ben Zion Leuchter, called attention to terrorist threats against airports and aircraft transporting Soviet Jews to Israel.
Israel, meanwhile, sent a senior official to Hungary to try to get the Malev flights restored. Yosef Govrin, assistant director general of the Foreign Ministry, flew to Budapest on Sunday.
A possible substitute to the Hungarian barrier may be coming from Poland and perhaps Czechoslovakia.
Israeli Cabinet sources said Poland has agreed to increase the number of weekly flights from Warsaw to Tel Aviv and that a new route has been agreed on between Israel and Prague. The World Jewish Congress said Warsaw was doubling its flights to Israel from two to four.
Other reports over the weekend said Soviet and Israeli officials were discussing the establishment of an ocean route to Israel, probably from Odessa on the Black Sea, employing Greek and Cypriot passenger ships.
The report, carried by the Yugoslavian news agency Tanjug, was not confirmed in Israel.
The New York Times reported Saturday that PLO leader Yasir Arafat asked the Soviet Union to avoid “direct maritime or air transport” of emigrants to Israel. There are no direct routes to Israel from the Soviet Union.
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