Friday, April 15, 1949

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Page Three

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

Ben Gurion Rapped for Approving Abdullah Ties

By PHINEAS J. BIRON
REPORTS do not reflect the dissatisfaction
the Israelis in connection with the Israel-
Transjordan armistice talks. Transjordan is regarded
—and rightly so—as Britain's stooge. For the Israeli
government to have recognized Abdullah as the master
of the Arab part of Palestine is consid-
ered paramount to permitting British
military bases in Palestine.
Ben Gurion was too hasty in accept-
ing Abdullah as the spokesman for the
Palestinian Arabs, it is generally felt.
Even if the Transjordan deal includes
concessions on the part of Transjordan
on the Jerusalem. , issue, it was still
weakness for Ben Gurion to accept
British backed Abdullah as the leader
of Arab Palestine. No wonder that
almost half of Knesset abstained from
voting confidence in the Ben Gurion
Biron
government.
Reliable observers of the Israel scene believe that
Ben Gurion's preiniership will be of short duration.
•
•
WITH THE ZIONIST convention only a little over
a month away, a great nervousness is apparent in of-
ficial Zionist circles. The masterminds of the ZOA
are not exactly elated with Daniel Frisch's determina-
tion to capture the nomination of the administration

EWS
N
MEWS

forces for the presidency. There is a great deal of
sentiment among top leaders fo5 Mortimer May of
Nashville.
May is considered more qualified because of his" 100
per cent American background. But Frisch is mean-
while collecting supporters and he may come to the
Zionist convention with sufficient votes to hold the
balance of power between the Neumann and Lipsky
factions.
Great pressure is being exercised on Frisch to with-
draw in favor of May. But Frisch has his heart set
on the presidency. He gave up most of his business
several years ago and has devoted himself to Zionist
work. He feels that he has put in more work in-
Zionism than any other individual in the ZOA. He
will be a hard man to displace.

INTERNALLY THE UJA fight is far from concluded.
The New Palestine is promoting, in grand style, the
Israel Corporation of America, which is the new name
for the Economic Committee of the ZOA.
If you read the New Palestine these days you gain
the impression that private interests are far more
portant than donations to the UJA. The desparate cry
of the DP's is not echoed in the official publication of
the ZOA. Investments, business opportunities are
stressed.
We are ready to admit that private investments
create opportunities of employment for the new immi-

OUR N. Y. REPORTER

Sees Israel Defending
Jewish Rights in UN

By WILLIAM ZUKERMAN

(Jewish World News Service)

YORK—There is one aspect of Israel's membership in' the
N EW
United Nations which is of significance not only for Israel, but

Jews all over the world and is worth stressing in this Passover
season. This is the fact that for ;
the first time, Jews as a people,
Jews, were not in desperate need
will have a place of their own in
of presenting their case to the
the council of nations and their public opinion of the world.
problems, not only in Israel, but
Whether we admit it or not,
outside it, will be voiced from
millions of Jews still live as per.
the international tribunal of the
secuted or discriminated minori-
world and acted upon by the
ties in many parts of the world
parliament of nations.
and their interests, rights and
Hitherto, Jewish problems were
very lives have to be protected.
often presented and discussed in
It is significant that this truth
the parliaments of individual na-
was first recognized and acted
tions and in the United Nations,
upon by non-nationalist Jews and
but they were never presented
Jewish organizations. The move-
directly, always through an in-
ment to present Jewisl. problems
termediary.
and needs before world opinion
At best it was a sort of a back- was started by the great Sir
door representation with a pecul- Moses Montefiore who was any-
iar back-door diplomacy of its thing but a
nationalist Jew.
own which was in most cases as
•
ineffective as it was humiliating. FACED REALITIES
The situation will be changed
IT WAS FOLLOWED up for
radically now with Israel's pros- nearly 75 years by anti-national-
pective admission to the UN. For ist Jewish organizations such as
the first time not only Israel, but
the Anglo-Jewish Association and
Jewish communities in other the Alliance Israelite Universelle.
countries numbering many more Later the taste was taken up by
millions, will have an open and
the nationalistic, but not exclu-
direct access to public opinion of
sively Zionist organization, the
the world in cases of persecution
World Jewish Congress, and by
or other emergencies.
the non-Zionist and non-national-
• • •
istic body, the American Jewish
THEORETICAL TRUTH
Committee.
THERE ARE some Jews who
All of these organizations rec-
will object to this. They claim
ognized early in their careers
that Jews outside Israel are na- that, no matter what their theor-
tionals of their countries and
ies about Jews as a people are,
they need no special access to the the hard and tragic facts of Jew-
international tribunal of the ish reality, force them to act for
world.
Jews as a group, and as such they
This is true in theory, but the have acted in an organized form
practical experience of Jewish for nearly 30 years.
history has shown that there has
But it has always been action
never been a time in the last cen- behind the stage and has become
tury when Jewish group interests
were not the subject of interna-
tional politics and when Jews, as

•

•

known as "Shtadlanus" or back-
stage diplomacy.
This period of contemporary
Jewish history is not to be dis-
missed with contempt, for despite
its many handicaps and humilia-
tions, it has often accomplished
positive results for Jews and has
averted many tragedies. But this
chapter, like a good many others,
is coming to an end now. The
impending admission of Israel to
the UN puts an end to this back-
door diplomacy. From now on,
Jews even outside Israel, who
will be faced with persecution,
discrimination, or elimination of
rights, will have direct access to
the councils of the nations and a
representation in the parliament
of the world.
•
DEFEND MINORITIES
INSTEAD OF appealing
through liberal and humanitarian
intermediaries, Jews will be able
to make their own plea, through
their own representatives, direct-
ly to the conscience, as well as to
the political leadership of the
world.
The Israeli representation at
the UN will have an additional
task which no other delegation on

gration into Israel but somehow we feel that the func-
tion of the ZOA should be to promote sentiment for
the UJA campaign.

•

•

•

LOUIS G. WEBER of Los Angeles is perturbed about
our inclusion of the American Jewish Congress among
the "hush hush" defense organizations. And we un-
derstand Weber's distress.
The Congress is less "hush hush" than the other
Jewish defense organizations. As a matter of fact
Stephen S. Wise is still American Jewry's most out-
spoken and courageous leader. But the Congress does
not often speak with the voice of Dr. Wise these days.
It is frequently silent on important issues. The lawyers
and Rabbis who surround Dr. Wise counsel restraint
and diplomatic strategy too often.
4
*
DR. WISE, as it happens again and again, takes his
stand as an individual and not as the president of the
Congress. I believe that the rank and file of the
Congress outside of New York is much more militant
and progressive than its national leadership.
The Congress, i.e., the national office, rarely pro-
tests publicly against anything these days. It permits
the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defama-
tion League to get away with deceptive actions.
Try to ask the New York office to participate in any
picketline against anti-Semitic-fascist policies, they
hush you down and classify you as a crackpot.

the UN has. This is to represent
Jewish minorities in countries of
persecution and defend their
rights and lives wherever these
will be threatened.
This is a change of profound
significance which will affect
Jewish communal life and many
big Jewish organizations which
were engaged in international
political work, will now have to
find new forms of activity as a

result of this change, even as the
Zionist organization has to now.
But it is a change for the good.
For it means that the a* of
"Shtadlanus" is over.
Jews living in countries out-
side Israel whose civil rights, or
lives will be threatened by perse-
cution or discrimination,
from now on have their own rep-
resentatives to state their case to
the world.

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