T H E Page Two Comments by Leaders of American Christian Palestine Committee By DR. HOWARD M. LeSOURD and DR. CARL HERMANN VOSS By PHINEAS J. BIRON Copyright, 1946, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Inc. FLASH . Watch the "League for Peace with Jus- tice in Palestine" with headquarters at 345 Madison Avenue, New York City .. . It is an interfaith front (Arab, Christian, Jewish) for anti-Zionist propaganda by the Arab League . . . Benjamin H. Freed- man is a "Representative of cooperative persons of the Jewish faith . . ." We have a suspicion as to who these "persons of the Jewish faith" might be . . . More next week. * * MISCELLANY Bill Unger, member of Pittsburgh Post 49 of Jewish War Veterans, thinks we're all wrong about Alfred Fleishman's chances to be elected National Command- er . . . Well, let's wait and see. The YOung Men's Christian Association of the Oranges (New Jersey) should have its knuckles rapped for issuing careless Easter literature . . . We refer to its "Orange Leaves" of April 18 in which appears a tactless insult to the - Sanhedrin. Some columns ago we wrote about Otto Piper of Princeton and scored him for his Streichian philosophy . . If you want to know more about him read "Judaism and Christianity" by Trudge Weiss - Rosmarin, a thought - provoking book. * * * WELL DONE Jewish social service is a field full of grief as most professionals will tell you . . . Occasionally though, intelligent lay people do something which heartens the paid workers who labor hard for the common weal without gratitude . . . The other evening down in Jacksonville, Fla., leaders of the Jacksonville Community Council presented their executive direc- tor, William I. Boxerman, with a certifi- cate for the purchase of a new automo- bile in tribute to his successful adminis- tration of the organization. * * * NOW REALLY! • SOL! Rep. Sol Bloom, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is reported having put the following in the April 13 Congressional Record: "History records Washington as the greatest American in the 18th Century . . . In the 19th this honor is undoubtedly Lincoln's . . . And when the full record of the 20th Century is written, certainly the name of William Randolph Hearst will lead the list" .. . Never heard of FDR, Sol? * * • CANADIAN NEWS The first volume of "The History of the Jews in Canada" by Benjamin Good- man Sack is out . . . a monumental work .. • The leaflet "Jewish War Heroes" published by the Canadian Jewish Con- gress is a swell job . . • Four Canadian Jews were made officers of the Order of the British Empire, the highest military decoration in the Empire . . . The Cana- dian Jewish Congress was the first Jewish representative institution on this continent to ship help to Polish Jewry. Heard in The Lobbies By ARNOLD LEVIN (Copyright, 1946, Independent Press Service. Inc.) Jewish GETS HIS WISH Carl H. Mote, anti-Semitic publisher, who wrote a pamphlet in 1945 in which he said, "I am ashamed to be an Amer- ican," needn't worry about it any more. He passed away last week. * * * PEACE MONGER Rev. Millard J. Flenner, at a recent meeting in Chicago, declared: "If we could keep the Jews locked up, we could have peace on earth." Here is a so-. called minister of God who would be at peace if innocent people were languish- ing in jail. You meet such fine individ- uals in the hate business. * * Friday, May 10, 1946 • An Evasive Report Strictly Confidential * JEWISH NEWS * LOGIC "Destiny", a wierd magazine which espouses the "Anglo-Saxon Israel" theory also spouted by Rev. Flenner, declares editorially in the April issue: "Great Britain, not the Jews, took this land (Palestine) from the Turks. By right of conquest . • the land belongs to Great Britain." In the same editorial: "He that taketh the sward • shall perish by .thel sword." Make up your mind, Destiny. We welcome the recommendation which upholds President Truman's cour- ageous request of last summer to admit 100,000 homeless 'Jews • to Palestine. This recommendation, however, must be regarded as no more than a partial remedy of an intolerable condition. It is at best • a belated acknowledgment. of an outraged world conscience—the conscience of millions of Christians who demand justice for the Jewish people. . . . But we consider that thiS report is at best only a point of departure. It is evasive and unwarranted to make issue of "Christian rights and interests" in view of the complete freedom which the Christians in Palestine now enjoy. Dur- ing the paSt generation reverence and good - taste have been evident in the preserva- tion and protection of holy places, shrines and sacred spots associated with the history of Christendom, as well as of Judaism and Mohammedanism. The Christian conscience is outraged by such an attempt to put a brake on Jewish development of Palestine due to an inadequately defined "interest of the Christian world." The Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations Mandate stipulated that the holy places be fully protected, a stipulation which has been meticulously observed by the Jews of Palestine. As Christians we protest this effort to create an issue out of a situation which has never been a problem, and _thus obscure the real issue at stake which is not only to create a haven for homeless Jews, but to build a National Home for a homeless people. To lump the Jews with Moslems and Christians and con- sider them solely as a religious group is historically and scientifically absurd, for the Jewish people is much more than a religious entity. The Jews as a people have an ethnic consciousness which makes their relationship to Palestine unique. It is unfair and unjustifiable, we believe, to raise the standard of living among the Arabs at the expense of the Jews. We believe that the Arab standard of living must be raised, but we think it unjust and uncalled for to penalize the Jews for the backwardness of the Arabs. It is a travesty on justice to. place part of the burden, as inevitably will be the case, upon the 100,000 Jews entering the Promised Land with nothing more than their lives. Purely Commentary AN UNJUST REPORT Jewry has survived many commissions whose "predictions" and "findings" have not been favorable to the Jewish cause in Palestine. The Jewish people alSo will survive the latest committee—in spite of its unique position as the first investigating group on Palestine to include American repre- sentation. The Anglo-American Inquiry Commit- tee on Palestine had an historic oppor- tunity to establish a new tradition for justice in international relations. In the it has failed woefully—its report being another travesty on justice and a most unfair statement on the Jewish position. The first reaction to the report was one of rejoicing that the committee should have eccepted President Truman's pro- posal for the immediate admission of 100,- 000 Jews, and that it should have re- pudiated the ugliest portions of the White Paper of 1939—the Nazi-patterned re- striction on land sales to Jews and de- pendence of Jewish immigration upon Arab approval. But a full study of the report and the subsequent statement of Britain's Prime Minister Clement Attlee completely de- stroyed all confidence in the committee. There are elements in this very unjust report which arouse feelings of humilia- tion and deep hurt. It is necessary, therefore, to read the report in a spirit of strong courage and. with a determined will not to permit anything to stand in the way of ultimate achievement of our goal—the settling in Palestine of the million European Sur- vivors—no matter how difficult the struggle. * * * THE BIRTH OF AN INSECT The mountain was in labor, but instead of giving birth to a lion, it has produced a disease-carrying insect. This, unfortunately, is a verdict we are compelled to arrive at, upon experiencing the - humiliations contained in the report made by a group of men who • were selected to help solve the tragic problem of the surviving Jews of Europe. Instead of solving the problem, they have aggravated the situation. Many of the conclusions in their report are il- logical and impractical. Even in the recommendation that "the whole world share responsibility . . . for the resettle- ment of all 'displaced persons' " the com- mittee fell into error. "A real obstacle," they state, "to individual restitution is that the attempt to give effect to this legislation is frequently a cause of active anti-Semitism." Admitting that "Nazi oc- cupation has left behind it a legacy of anti-Semitism," the committee proceeds to state that "this cannot be combatted by legislation alone," and its solution is "the sanction of a strong world public opinion." Such theory has been disproved in Russia, and where justice is involved it would not have hurt if the committee had learned a lesson in decency even from the Communists. * * * THE MAJOR BETRAYAL "Palestine is not, and never can be a purely Jewish land," the report asserts. This represents the major betrayal of a sacred trust made to the Jewish people. The pledge for the establishment of the Jewish National Home was made by 51 nations. Great Britain, as the mandatory power responsible, to the 51 nations who joined in endorsing the policy incorpor- ated • in the Balfour - Declaratiop, by her action in shutting Palestine's door, al- By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ ready stands guilty of having prevented the rescuing of hundreds of thousands of Jews who could have escaped the German crematoria, Now, instead of insisting on the making good of a promise, the com- mittee condones the British government's pledge-smashing program. There can be no objection_ to assump- tion of responsibility for Palestine by the United Nations. On the contrary, it should be welcomed, and we can hope only for improvements over the present perfidious policies. But the Jewish peo- ple will reject any, policy which will freeze the Jewish pbsition, which will say that only 100,000 can be rescued and a million more who have no other place to go—(the report admits: "We know of no country to which the great majority can go in the immediate future other than Palestine. Furthermore that is where al- most all of them want to go.")—will be denied asylum in Palestine. • * * * QUESTION OF STANDARDS It is generally admitted that the Jews of -Palestine have contributed greatly to the advancement of their Arab neighbors. But the inquiry committee is dissatisfied. Since the Palestine Arabs' progress is noticeable only in comparison with the status of Arabs in other lands, but not in comparison with the position of the Jews in Palestine, the committee believes that "the Jews of Palestine should accept the necessity that taxation, raised from both Jews and Arabs, will have to be spent very largely on the Arabs in order to bridge the gap which now exists between the standard of living of the two peoples." Read this carefully! Note the injustice of the judgment of the inquiry commit- tee! Already; a major portion of Pales- tine tax funds, derived in the main from the Jewish community, is used for the upkeep of the British armed forces in Palestine and Transjordania and for the support of Arab schools. But the great humanitarians on the inquiry committee are not satisfied! They would have us do' more! Perhaps they wod have us form a Jewish National Fund for the Ad- vancement of the Poor Arabs While the Displaced Persons in Europe Beat Their Heads Against Palestine's Closed Doors! This is an injustice and an insult, and we protest such a verdict! • * SARCASM OR STAB IN BACK? Thus, the Jewish National Fund is criti- cised for its provisions that no labor other. than Jewish shall be employed by the lessee on its land. Arabs have been flocking into Pales- tine from neighboring lands because of employment opportunities among Jews, but the JNF clause is grabbed at as an excuse for excoriating Jews! Justice, what crimes are committed in thy name! In view of • our experiences in Pales- tine, the following excerpt from the re- port takes the prize: "Any person . . . who desires, and is qualified under ap- plicable laws to enter Palestine, must not be refused admission or subjected to dis- crimination on the ground that he is NOT a Jew." What do you know about this? We had expected the committee to report that no one may be excluded from Pales- tine because he IS a Jew! Now, read the last quotation again, and judge for your- self whether it - is sarcasm or an out and out insult. • • . There is rinichm,pre to be condemned the. -re-poi For instance, the attempt deny the- people the right to the to Between You and Me By BORIS SMOLAR kCopyright, 1946, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)" POLITICAL ECHOES How long will it be before the recom- mendations of the Anglo-American in- quiry committee will be implemented? . . This question is now on the lips of every Jewish leader in New York . . Very few people in the United States know that the statements issued by the major Jewish organizations immediately after the publication of the inquiry com- mittee's report were actually influenced by some of the American members of the committee • . . These members met with top Zionist and non-Zionist leaders in New York separately and urged them not to take issue too strongly with the re- port . . The request of these members, known for their friendly attitude to the Jewish demands, was complied with to a very great extent .. . Especially since it was felt that American Jews are pri- marily interested at present in _effecting the transfer of 100,000 Jews from Europe before the end of the year . . . Prime Minister Att.lee's conditions, announced in Parliament a day after the leading Jewish organizations issued their statements, changes the situation .. . All indications now point to the fact that it will be a long time before any action on the recom- mendations is taken . . . The recom- mendations are not binding on either Britain or the United States until formal- ly ratified . . . Before they are ratified, there will be prolonged consultations and bargaining between our State Depart- ment and the British Foreign Office .. Then too, there seems to be an inclina- tion to call in Arab and Jewish leaders for consultation after the two govern- ments reach an agreement . . . All this means that quite a lot of time will elapse before any transfer of the 100,000 Jews to Palestine is started. * * * SIDELIGHTS Members of the Anglo-American in- quiry committee now reveal that the- testimony of Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Dr. J. L. Magnes in Jerusalem and of Judge Joseph M. Proskauer and Dr. Joseph Schwartz in Washington strongly influenced the decisions of the commit- tee . . The statements by Arab leaders, as well as the Jewish testimony in Lon- don, left no impression on the commit- tee. Incidentally, Dr. Magnes is expected in the U. S. this month and may address the JDC national board of directors meeting which will be held in Chicago on June 1 . . . This meeting may also be addressed by Bartley Crum, one of the members of the Anglo-American inquiry committee. • * "ILLEGAL ARMIES" * The strength of the Jewish "illegal armies," upon whose dissolution Prime Minister Attlee now insists prior to ac- cepting the recommendations of the Anglo-American inquiry committee, is, for the first time, revealed in the report of the committee . . . The largest of thege "illegal armies," under the control of the "Haganah," numbers more than 60,000 men, the report says . . . It states that the "Haganah" has completely organized an army- '-'under a central control and with subsidiary territorial commands, in three branches." Jordan Valley Authority unless they "combine Jewish finance with govern- ment responsibility and control." The Jews know from bitter experience the I meaning of "government control". * * * `THE NEED FOR PEACE' One more objection: The final recom- mendation of the committee, dealing with "the need for peace in Palestine," ex- presses the view "that the Jewish Agency should at once resume active cooperation with the mandatory in the suppression of terrorism and of illegal immigration." The Jewish Agency has consistently op- posed terrorism. But the Jewish Agency does not and -can not recognize any Jewish immigration as "illegal." Further- more, in view of the failure of the Pales-. tine government to protect Jewish rights, the Haganah can not be asked to go out of existence. The points in the final recommenda- tion were at once made a major condition for the implementation of the report. by Prime Minister Attlee. Admitting that "100,000 ain't hay" and that it would be a great victory for the European • sur- vivors if the 100,000 could be settled in • Palestine this year, we are now begin- ning to -wonder -whether any serious of ..• • forts will .be made to settle the 100,000:. -=•." - Jews this year, or whether the latest re- •- port will become another complete faree . 1.: and betrayal.