Purely Commentary

By PHILIP SLOMOV I TZ

Strategists` Errors: Truth About Palestine and Arab Oil

2—THE

JEWISH NEWS

Center Sponsors Weekly Outings
For Youngsters in Dexter Area

Friday, July 29, 1949

Mrs, Danto Takes
Interfaith Position

"Arab appeasement was not a sine qua non for the exploita-
tion of Middle Easeern. oil."
Mrs. Samuel B. Danto, active
"James Terry Duce, vice-president of Aramco, testified at a women's leader, has accepted
Congressional hearing that he had a promise from Ibn Saud that the post of Jewish co-chairman
he did not intend to revoke the oil concessions even after the of the women's committee of
partition award."
the Detroit
Round Table of
"Our Palestine policy would not jeopardize the concessions,
Catholics, Jews
and in any case Middle East oil, though abundant, was a highly
and Protestants,
conjectural factor in our national defense, subject to all the
it was announc-
hazards of internal disorder and foreign attack—without refer-
ed by Rev. Jo-
ence to whether the United States fostered or frustrated the Jewish
seph
Q. Mayne,
aspirations in Palestine."
executive secre-_
tary of the
"The threat of Americans dying in Palestine was 'scare prop-
,Round Table.
aganda' of the type which had paralyzed United States diplomacy
in the past."
Mrs. Danto is
immediate
past
"The United States must adopt a realistic attitude on Israel's
Mrs. Danto president of the
territorial boundaries . . . The Israelis are prepared to indem-
nify the Arabs for their abandoned lands and - homes, and the re- League of Jewish Women's Or-
settlement of the refugees in the unpopulated areas of Trans- ganizations, first vice president
of the Michigan Federation of
jordania is the only disposition conducive to ultimate peace."
Temple Sisterhoods, secretary of
These are some of the conclusions reached by Dr. Frank E. the National Bureau of Feder-
Manuel in "The Realities of American-Palestine Relations," due ated Jewish Women's Groups,
to be issued by Public Affairs Press, 2153 Florida Ave., Washing- honorary president of Temple
ton,. 8, D. C., on July 31. The value of the book, however, lies Israel Sisterhood and a member
in its revelations of the secret diplomatic pOlicies of our 08tate of the board of directors of ORT
Department in dealing with Zionism; in its historical review of and the Council of Jewish
America's role in Palestine since 1832; in its description of the pro- Women.
tection that was provided for Jewish settlers by the American
She will take office as co-
Consular corps in the Holy Land.
chairman immediately for 1949-
It is easier to understand the new maneuvers of the State
50. She will share the chair-
Department after reading the most interesting analysis of the
manship of the Detroit Round
subject by Dr. Manuel, who has just assumed a professorial post
Table Women's Committee with
at Brandeis University. His great study of the subject, which
a Catholic and a Protestant
is based on official, hitherto unpublished records, exposes "the
woman.

source of that murky stream which runs through United States
relations with the Palestine mandatory for a quarter of a
century."

This book is a monumental contribution to diplomatic lit-

erature. Futhermore, it is a magnificent evaluation of American
Zionist history and the 'author's objective • comments on various
conflicts in Jewish life will throw much light on situations that
were hitherto misunderstood:

Abetz Given 20
Years for War
Crimes Guilt

PARIS — A French military
tribunal sentenced Otto Abetz,
48, Hitler's ambassador to Paris
As in the instance of President Truman's firm stand in favor during the Nazi occupation, to
of Israel, in opposition to the attitude of the State Department, 20 years at hard labor as a war
U. S. diplomatic policies during the past three decades were criminal.
marked by similar conflicts since the days of President Woodrow
The court based its conviction
Wilson. While there were several strong pro-Zionist statements
by Wilson, Secretaries of States, beginning with Robert Lansing,
were in the main antagonistic to Jewish aspirations. Dr. Manuel's
revelations present in all their ugliness some of the shocking
conditions. which made the Zionist road so difficult.. The "erron-
eous estimate of Arab military might," which at the outset was
responsible for the outbreak of the war against Israel, also led
to the defeat of the antagonists of Zionism. Prof. Manuel points
out that if the U. S. military "had supported partition firmly
and consistently, the - Arab states would not have ventured to
invade Israel," and he makes this charge: "In a sense we created
and gave life to the Arab bogey around which we constructed our
Middle Eastern policy."

Presidents versus State Department

For book reviewers and public lecturers, Dr. Manuel's book
provides a veritable literary field day. The protection which
American Consuls began to give to Jews in Palestine more than
a century ago lasted for many decades, until the appearance on
the scene of the anti-Semetic Consul Selah Merrill. But before
and after him there were American representatives in the Holy
Land who were passionately concerned that the Jewish settlers
should be protected and that Prophecy should be given a chance
to materalize. There are scores of stories about U. S. Consuls
and their relations with Palestinian Jews, each one forming
the nucleus for a full discussion as a background to an under-
standing of American-Palestine - relations.

As history, Prof. 'Manuel's work. is superb. The readers are
fully enlightened on the position of Turkey in the entire Zionist
issue. Pressure politics is exposed for all it is worth: In many
instances Zionist pressure succeeded in securing temporary con-
cesions but in the'rnain the State Department did all it could to
`harm the Jewish cause. We learn that "oil in the Negev was one
of the first major economic interests of the United States in
Palestine,'' dating back to 1918, when the . Standard Oil Co. sought
to gain a foothold in Palestine. We are told by Dr. Manuel: "Only
when there were riots in Palestine, an attack by Arabs, or fight-
ing between Jews and. Arabs did the . State Department telegraph.
to its Jerusalem consul for reports, because 'influential American
Jews were greatly exercised'—the accepted formula. Beyond these
incidents there was indifference."
In the main, it is not a pleasant picture. But the historical
value of the book makes it fascinating reading. It is a work to
which it will be necessary to refer time and time again, in. expla-
nation both of power politics and the U. S. attitude on. Zionism,
Palestine and Israel.

Kasle Announces UHS Appointments;
Kalman, Cullen Head Education Event

Jacob Kellman and Daniel G.
Cullen were appointed co-chair-
man of the 1949-50 Education
Month observance of the United
Hebrew Schools.
Other appontments by Abe
Kasle, president of the schools,
for the coming year, include
Ira G. Kaufman and Charles
Charlip, co-chairmen of mem-
bership; Dr. A. W. Sanders,
Midrasha chairman, and Walter
L. Field and Daniel G. Cullen,
in charge of co-curricular activi-
ties.
In addition, Kasle named
Maurice H. Zackheim and Mau-
rice Landau, chairmen of the
committee on education; Louis
Robinson and Landau, budget
and finance . ; JUdge WilliaM
Friedman, Endowment Fund—
gifts and bequests; Lawrence W.
Crohn, public relations; Julius

Berman and Louis Stoll, real
estate; Harry Cohen, scholar-
ships. and Nathan Yaffa, Mor-
ris Fishman and Isaac Rosen-
thal, snyagogue and auditorium.
Representatives to the MIS
board from the Women's Auxili-
ary are Mesdames Louis Gel-
fand, Bert L. Smokier, Louis To-
bin and Herman Wetsman; from
the Alumni Association, Allan
L. Weston and Sol King, and
from the Young Adult Council
Community Service Committee,
Mandell L. Berman.

WARSAW, (JTA)- — The dis-
trict court of Lodz sentenced to
death Julian Douletchus, • for;4 -
mer chief of the Ukrainian po-
lice who took an active part
during the war in the liquida-
tion of Jews in the Volyn dis-
trict.

Between You and Me

• By BORIS SMOLAR

Things to Come

chiefly on Abetz' guilt in con-
nection with arrests and depor-
tation of a number of top French
army officers.
A document read at the trial
established that Abetz was con-
sulted by the Vichy government
on plans to deport Jews from
France to the Oswiecim death
camp. According to the docu-
ment, the Nazi envoy agreed to
the deportation of the Jews to
Oswiecim with the stipulation
that alien Jews in France be
deported first, "as a matter of
propaganda."

Readers of this book will find in it a mass of material about
Henry Morgenthau Sr.'s attitude towards Zionism while he was
Minister to Turkey and later as an anti-Zionist before the Peace
Conference that followed World War I. There will be much dis-
illusionment in Wilson's attitude which was not as firm as we had
been led to believe. On one occasion, when a frantic request was
made by Dr. Stephen S. Wise for a statement on Zionism by
President Wilson, a pencilled notation given to the President's
Secretary, Joseph Tumulty, read : "No. W. W."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt is found "wanting." To quote
Dr. Manuel on FDR: "During the war years—and they began in
1939-without jeopardizing the security of the United States, he
might have called for more energetic measures to save at least
a portion of the six million Jews who were slaughtered in the
ghettos of Eastern Europe and to make real provision for the
survivors in Palestine. Without ignoring the political and military
obstacles to bold intervention in this sphere, one can still find Jews Accuse Russia
the late President wanting." On the other hand, President Tru-
of Mass Deportations
man emerges in this book as a genuine friend of Israel.

Dr. Manuel is as effective in his description of the activities
of Jewish leaders as he is in his evaluation of State Department
activities. Rabbi Wise, Justice Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter ren-
dered services to Zionism which are written indelibly in Jewish
history, and this book describes -them in detail. The Weizmann-
Brandeis and European-American Zionists' conflicts are reviewed
with an objective approach that adds to the value of this rec-
ord of Zionist experiences.

,

Weekly trips to points of interest are being conducted during
the summer for Center juniors in the Dexter neighborhood, an-
nounces Samuel Neusthatz, Dexter branch supervisor. Center
members, 6 to 10, who have been part of the Dexter neighborhood
club program, can go on these trips every Thursday.
A chartered bus picks up the 'children and takes them to
Greenfield Village, Bob-Lo, the Zoo, Cranbrook, Belle Isle and
Eastwood Park. In the event of rain, alternate inside programs
are planned. In the photograph above, children and their parents
enjoy a Center-sponsored outing.
These summer trips are under the supervision of Mrs. Sara,
Graff, assisted by group leaders Zelda Landy and Sally Sanfield.
Anyone interested in further information may call the Dexter
branch office, TO. 8-5856.

LAKE SUCCESS (JTA)— The
charge that the Soviet Govern-
ment has embarked on a policy
of mass deportations of Jews
from the Ukraine and Byelo-
russia "toward the frozen Arch-
angel and Serbia" is made in a
document submitted to United
Nations headquarters by the
American Jewish League against
Communism.
The document describes the
uprooting of Jews from their
.homes "on less than 24 hours'
notice" and estimates that about
400,000 Jews are effected by the
deportations which, the League
claims, are still going on. U.N.
Secretary-General Trygve Lie
was asked by the League—"in
the name of humanity"—to use
the facilities of the United - Na-
tions "to alleviate this infrac-
tion of • human rights."

Don't be surprised if the Israeli Government floats a $250,-
000,000 loan soon in this country .. And it should not come as
a. surprise to you if Henry Molitor turns Up as the super-sales-
man of these bonds . . . The entire project is now being discussed
in Tel Aviv . . . All .indications point to the fact that the cam-
paign for the sale of the Israeli bonds will be conducted parallel
with the United Jewish Appeal drive . . . However, there are Zion-
ist leaders in New York who don't want the United Jewish Ap-
peal continued once the Israeli government loan is launched in
this country . . . They counsel against paying serious attention
to the announcement made this month in Tel Aviv by Dr. Israel
Goldstein that an understanding has been reached in New York
for renewal of the UJA in 1950 . . . Their. contention is that Israel
would benefit much more if Zionists in America concentrate on
making the $250,000,000 loan a success rather than splitting their
forces on two fronts—the sale of the bonds and on the UJA
campaign . . The entire idea of the loan grew from the fear
in Israel that the UJA will not be as successful next year as this
year . . . Some Israeli leaders feel it may be easier to raise $250,-
000,000 in the U.S. for Israel by selling government bonds than
to raise even a third of this sum through the United Jewish Ap-
peal . . . The dwindling of UJA income this year and the or-
ganization's possibilities next year, in the event of an economic
depression, has been uppermost- in the minds of Israeli govern-
ment leaders ... They feel that a loan has good chances in this
country even in the face of a possible depression, since bonds are,
after all, a kind of savings which is not only repayable, but also
carries interest.

*

Domestic Affairs

'

.

Another step in the direction of checking multiple fund!,
raising campaigns in this country has now been taken by the
Council of Jewish FederationS and Welfare Funds ... The Council
has sent to Israel its top executive man, Harry Lurie, to confer,
with the Jewish Agency there and with the Israeli Government
on plans for puttirig an end to "mushroom" campaigns in behalf
of Israeli institutions . . . Mr. Lurie will, naturally, also look into
other aspects of life in Israel which need aid from American
Jewry ... Additional communities in Massachusets and Michigan
have now joined the Council, bringing the total of communities
represented by it to more than 800.
Miriam Hospital in Providerice is the. first Jewish hospital
in the United States to receive approval for a grant of funds for
capital development under the Federal Hospital Construction Act
The grant, of $333,000, was made as part of the hospital's mil-
lion-dollar construction program.
Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, a beneficiary of the Associated
Jewish Philanthropies there, is nearing the completion of a neW
wing at a cost of $5,500,000 ... Some bricklaying!
The Jewish Welfare Federation and the Mt. Sinai Hospital .
of Cleveland are jointly sponsoring a, study of the hospital prO - ,
gram, its place in, and relations with, the Ninmunity
Two
foundations have granted $10,000 t4) finance the study.