Traditional American Battles for Freedom in Religion Read Commentator's Column on Page 2 ' HE JEWISH NEWS of Jewish Events A Weekly Review VOLUME 16—No. 18 708-10 David Stott Bldg.—Phone WO. 5-1155 Detroit 26, Michigan, January 13, Investments In Israel: Media of Information In the U. S. Last Article in Series on Page 4 Per Year; Single Copy, 10c 1950 •7 MACs Bring Back Normal Knesset Action Activity in 'No Man's Land' Adds Incentive ft HAIFA, Israel—"The trouble with peace is that it doesn't make headlines . . "No, it's no good for headlines, but it's good for crops, anyway .. ." That scrap of conversation between Israeli and Egyptian army officers was re- corded by this reporter at El Auja, a former customs post between Palestine and Egypt, far south of here in the desert. A year ago, when El Auja was the site of a fierce battle between Israeli and Egyptian troops, it was in the headlines the world over. Today, the only battle at El Auja are the daily horseshoe pitching competitions—the sole recreation available be- tween sessions of the Egyptian-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission, which has its headquarters there. The Mixed Armistice Commissions — everyone calls them MACs for short—have become in a quiet, unobtru- Modern Steel sive way the symbols of the present-day peace in the Holy Plant to Go up Land. The' MACs have brought back to their homes thou- Soon in Israel sands of Arab and Jewish prisoners, both military and civilian. The MACs have helped destroy hundreds of dan- NEW YORK (JTA) For- gerOus mines, left over from the recent fighting—includ- mation of a company capi- ing a three-ton, monster land mine right in the center of talized at $1,000,000 to estab- lish and operate a modern Jerusalem. steel construction plant in t i possible for Arabs and Jews to Israel, was announced by They are making plow their lands and graze their cattle in areas that only Lawrence Schacht, president esterday were "no-man's lands," out-of-bounds for Arabs of the Schacht Steel Con- and Jews alike ; they find miss- struction Co. ing persons and missing steam- "The plant will be equipped On The Road to rollers and stolen or lost camels with the newest American Peace—This article on and cows; and replace the fight- machinery," Schacht said. He a - little-known aspect ing lines of yesterday with to- recently returned from Israel of the United Nations' day's peaceful demarcation lines. after preliminary exploration In short, the MACs work stub- of the steel construction field activity in the Holy bornly to clear up the mess left there. Land is by a special Two of his associates, Sam- behind the Palestine war. uel Schacht. and Henry F. UN feature corres- Altogether, there are four Pine, left for Israel to com- pondent now in Israel. MACs to bear the main burden plete final arrangements. "I expect that ground will of practical peacemaking in the Holy Land. They were set up under the armistice agree- be broken for the plant with- three months," Schacht de- ments concluded last spring and summer between Israel in clared. "My visit to Israel has and four of her Arab neighbors : Egypt, Lebanon, the Has- impressed rx-le with the enor- hemite Kingdom of Jordan and Syria. Each MAC is made mous 'potentialities of - the up of two or three Israeli and two or three Arab repre- country." sentatives, plus a United Nations chairman.' In Tel Aviv, details of a broad building program in The latter is appointed by the chief of staff of the Jerusalem to house govern- UN Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine, Brigadier- ment offices and government General William E. Riley, whose headquarters are here. workers in that city, as well Each chairman is assisted by a small staff of American, as now immigrants and the Belgian and French officers from General Riley's UN ob- new headquarters of the server group, now comprising 36 officers and 40 enlisted World Zionist Congress, were men, including an aircrew of 18 to operate three white- outlined by Labor Minister Golda Myerson. painted UN planes. El Auja, the headquarters of the Egyptian-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission, consists of two 2000-year- See It Sunday! old. stone-walled wells and two ramshackle stone houses, which once served as a customs post between t h e Holy Land and -Egypt. A car can be driven for hours in any -. direction from An extensive, week-long El Auja with- program of celebrations out turning up will begin this Sunday af- anything b u t desert and ternoon, to mark the of- ficial opening of the newly- vultures a n d completed Dexter-Davison hyenas. The only people branch of the Jewish Com- living at that munity Center. forsaken spot Members of the Israeli-Egyptian Mixed Fronting on Davison, be- are MAC mem- Armistice Commission iron out a demarca- tween Holmur and bers. tion line problem on the spot in the Palestine Petoskey, the m o dern All of t h e desert. building is an outgrowth of MAC people the Center's Dexter exten- sleep in a dormitory room on the second floor of one of sion program. Its design the houses. On the first floor, they hold their meetings. On and decor prove it admir- the ground floor of the other house, they take their meals ably suited to its aim—to together. provide a recreational and On the floor above is the dormitory for the armed cultural program for resi- guards who protect the site against desert brigands and dents of the Dexter area hyenas. Under an Egyptian-Israeli agreement, the guards who cannot easily travel to are drawn from the ranks of Egyptian soldiers for two the main building of the weeks at a time, and from Israeli ranks for the next two Center — children, teen- weeks. agers and elderly people. The main job of the El Auja MAC, as of all four of Members of the com- the Mixed Armistice Commissions, is to secure to the for- munity who take advant- mer enemies "freedom from fear of attack," as the ar- age of the Center board's nistice pacts signed by Israel and four of her Arab neigh- open house invitation this bors put it. Sunday, will be conducted through the building's cool (Continued on Page 5) — For Investments - (Direct JTA Teletype Wires to the Jewish News) JERUSALEM—The Knesset adopted, at its first reading, a bill encouraging foreign investments. All parties except the Communists voted for the bill, which authorizes lower taxes for foreign investors and provides facilities for their taking profits and capital amortization funds out of the country in the form of currency. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has announced plans for increasing Israel's industrial labor force from its present 76,000 to 176,000 in the next four years, with the investment of over $360,000. - Gershon Meron, director-gen- eral of the Ministry announced. U. S. Loans for Machinery — The effect of the United States loan of $20,000,000 which was set aside for industrial purposes will be felt this year, when old machinery is replaced with new equipment. Loans totalling $140,000 have been advanced to 1,200 Arab farmers for seed and tractors. The Ministry of the Interior granted the Arab village of Abu Gosh, near Jeru- salem, the status of a local council. The Jewish Agency has prohibited Yemenite Jews from holding a separate drive in the United States. The campaign has been conducted by Zachariah Glusko. Name Settlement for Dr. Wise Three work camps are being set up by the Agency in the Jerusalem corridor, to accomodate newcomers from Yemen who are now at Givat Shaul camp. Four more camps are being completed in Galilee, while a new settlement of privately owned farms, to be established next week in the Jerusalem corridor, is to be named Kfar Shmuel, in honor of the late Stephen S. Wise . ' New AMPAL Bonds on Market NEW YORK, (JTA)—In a period of a little over a year AMPAL—the American Palestine Trading Corpora- tion—has completed the sale of $3,750,000 worth of its 10- year three per cent sinking fund debentures and has reg- istered another $3,250,000 of these securities which it is currently offering for sale to the public. It is expected that approximately $1,000,000 of the funds that will be thus realized will be used in the develop- ment of industries in the Negev. New Center Branch Designed For Youngsters, Aged Visitors By RUTH L. CASSEL cream and gray-green cor- ridors. From the main, glass-fronted lobby, they may progress to the large auditorium, where they will note the use of exterior brick on interior walls, an innovation in institutional construction according to architect Sol King of Al- bert Kahn, Associates. The room, which has a seating capacity of 350, or 200 for dining, has a fully-equipped stage, with newest lighting facilities, movie projection arrangements and two stage dressing rooms. The auditorium is being dedicated to the memory of Hyman C. B'roder, former president of the Center. A complete calendar of Dedication Week events at the new Dexter Center ap- pears on Page S. Continuing on the first floor, the tourists may look into the comfortable lounge which is expected to be used primarily by older visitors to the Center. Next door, is the library, also intended as a service to young people and the eld- erly. A Yiddish section and books on Judaica for chil- dren and teen-agers, as well as staff reference material, will be its features. The main stairway, lead- ing from the lobby to the second floor, is distinguish- ed by a magnified Star of David, set into the red brick stair wall, and a full- length glass brick window at the landing. Visitors to the Center, will probably find what might be ordinary meeting rooms, all along the second floor corridor, of unusual interest, since each has a distinctive color scheme— shades of green, rose, beige (Continued on Page 3)