Dissidents: Better Late Than Never

There are signs that the relentless focus of the Western press is no longer the blessing it once was for Anatoli Shcharansky. Only two weeks after his release from nine years in the Soviet Gulag, Shcharansky seemed to have more on his mind than his prison experiences. He revealed that after his arrival in West Germany, he promised his wife Avital a vacation, delayed because of the demands the media were making on his time. "I can tell you very frankly that it harms me from going deeper in our personal family life, which we want to start as soon as possible," said Shcharansky. "Now we need a good, long rest and to live together." With that, the Shcharanskys, married in 1974, left for three weeks' vacation at a kibbutz in northern Israel.

Before departing, however, Shcharansky made clear that his newfound freedom has not diminished his commitment to human rights. Though he reportedly dismissed Israeli politics as a "nightmare," he expressed an interest in Arabic, studying the Palestinian problem in depth and examining conditions in Israeli prisons. "Whether we want them or not," he said in an interview, "there are many Arabs in Israel, and I think we must talk to them. Maybe there will be less shooting."