Word: sch
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...SchÖnau Castle in Vienna became a symbol in the Arab-Israeli struggle last month when Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky promised Arab terrorists to close it down to Soviet Jews in return for the release of three hostages (TIME, Oct. 15). But so far, Kreisky has taken no steps to impede the flow of Jewish emigrants to and through the transit camp; instead, he has increased security at the camp and assigned gendarmes and plainclothes policemen to guard trains carrying emigrants from the moment they cross into Austria...
While world attention has been diverted by the war in the Middle East, Austria's door has remained open. Nearly 4,000 Jews have been quietly processed through SchÖnau, where they have remained until leaving for Israel on the El Al Airlines jets that depart Vienna's Schwechat Airport nightly. In the past two years, nearly 50,000 Jews have been processed through SchÖnau and the rate shows no sign of declining...
Though Kreisky remained firm on his insistence that Schönau must close, it began to appear that his promise to the terrorists to ban "group travel" was all but meaningless. "We shall continue to allow the transit of Russian Jews as we have done before," he said, "but we shall keep the time allowed in Austria as short as possible. Under normal circumstances, the stay in Austria will be limited to one night." This represented a clear retreat from his initial position, which he had described as "genuine transit, without stopovers." His new position in effect will allow Russian...
Arab Blackmail. Israel was concerned not so much with the closing of the Schönau camp as with the fact that the terrorists had extracted the pledge at the point of a gun. If other governments followed suit, Israel would soon be vulnerable to Arab blackmail. The specter arose of governments around the world bowing to the most outrageous terrorist demands, such as refusing landing rights to Israeli jetliners or the cutting off of trade...
Obviously, the Israelis have no intention of permitting Austria to stanch what Israel perceives to be its future life's blood. While officially Golda Meir's government demands that Schönau be kept open, a campaign to find other, more secure channels of emigration is quietly under way. Soviet emigrants might continue to use the Austrian route if the transit period can indeed be cut down. But Israeli authorities find great difficulty in planning for airline space, largely because they do not know how many emigrants will arrive on a given day. Says one Israeli official: "Moscow...