After Four Years of Pioneering

THE JEWISH NEWS-5

Road to Egypt Paved with Hard-Working
Israelis; Squalid Towns Now Productive

By YOHANAN RAMATI

(The author of the following article,
• well-known Israeli journalist, draws
• "before-and-after" picture of an area
in Israel—before immigrants brought
to the Jewish State with United Jew-
ish Appeal funds arrived to reclaim
and revive the area, and after UJA
funds helped to turn it into a livable,
productive sector.

- JERUSALEM—There is a way
of getting into Egypt that is
used no more. Four years ago
British soldiers used to drive
their trucks through the little
town of Rishon-le-Zion and
thence along the coastal road to
the squalid' towns of El Majdal
and Gaza.
Some of them stopped not far
beyond at the frontier posts of
-Rafa, and no doubt cursed their
luck as being posted far from
_civilized life. Others crossed the
border and went on to Fayid and
to Kantara, British strongholds
at the Stiez Canal.
Years have passed. The Bri-
tish are no longer with us. A
bitter war has intervened, which
the Arabs will tell you is not
yet over. New sagas have arisen
around the once unheeded
•names of Yad Mordehai and
Faluja. Even the border has
moved.
A long tongue rland running
along the Palestine coast from
Rafa to Belt Hanum, north-east
of Gaza, has, by the grace of
the armistice negotiations, re-
mained in the hands of the
Egyptian aggressor, in spite of
the defeats that forced him to
agree to a makeshift armistice.
- And so, w‘h e n I "w en t
South" for the first time, in
the early days of August 1949,
. El Majdal was as far as I
could get along this -oad that
once led to Egypt. I was told
to be careful. Arabs were still
' roaming the wide open south-
- ern spaces, as there were only
a few Jewish settlements once
- out of Rishon-le-Zion.
Between Tel Aviv and Rishon,
the road was crowded. Jerusa-
lem-bound vehicles had been di-
verted this way, as the main
highway was cut at Latrun and
the new by-pass . was not yet
built. The road, too narrow to
bear this added burden comfort-.
.ably, was cursed by drivers. By
its side, the rubble of battle lay
scattered haphazardly.
In one deserted Arab Village,
Jewish newcomers were clearing
away debris. But once past
Rishon, apart from one or two
• d settlements whose • green
land could be seen from the
highway, the countryside seemed
empty. Yibna, a large Arab vil-
lage, was deserted and- silent.
AShdod—a disappointing spec-
tacle to anyone acquainted with
its biblical portent—was likewise
a scene of desolation.,„Built from
mud, it had been ruined in the
fighting and its stench assailed
the nostrils. Then a wide stretch
of country without seemingly
any human beings, and finally
El: Majdal.
El Majdal had just been set-
tied by new immigrants hailing
from the four corners of the
earth, and seemed to be full of
children. The kids scrambled
onto the running boards of my
ear and insisted on a ride. The
town was dirty, and by no stretch
of the imagination could be called
attractive.
At night, armed marauders
from nearby Gaza paid frequent
visits to rob and pillage. Re-
mote from any major center of
Jewish life, with most of its
population unemployed or work-
ing only a day or two each week,
the prospects of El Maj dal
seemed bleak.
Neither the Jews just arrived,
nor the Arabs who had stayed
behind were very hopeful. The
people of El Majdal saw no rea-
son for • optimism. The Arabs
wanted to get away. The Jews
just grumbled.
- I traveled along this road
- again a few days ago. The
Arab village where I had seen
new immigrants clearing up is
today—thanks to the Jewish
Agency working with funds
received from the United Jew-
ish Appeal—the home of sev-
eral thousand souls. Its name
—Mishmar Ilashiva—perpetu-

-

-

ates the memory of those who
died here in the War of Lib-
eration.
The road has been widened,
and there is a new bypass to
Jerusalem. But it is when Rish-
on-le-Zion and the old estab-
lished Jewish ,settlements near it
have been passed that the pro-
fundity of the , change wrought
by 21 short months and the true
significance of the generous help
given to Israel by American
Jewry, through the United Jew-
ish Appeal, impinge' upon the
mind.'
Where there had been empty
spaces burnt by the summer sun,
rows upon rows of neat houses
bear witness to the creative urge
of Jewish destiny. Around each
house a small patch of green
grows larger with time. Another
two years and there will be no
gaps in the green in each vil-
lage. Another 10 years and
there will be no gaps between
the villages. A carpet will have
been laid from Tel Aviv to Ash-
dod in the color that God or-
dained to predominate on earth.-
In Yibna there are Jews, who
have brought their trades. Ash-
dod is still disappointing, but a
beginning has been made. New-
ly-built houses contrast strange-
ly with the mud huts left be-
hind by the Arabs.
In El Majdal there is com-
motion. • The town has changed
its name with regularity. First
it became Migdal Aza, then Mig-
dal Gad, now, with the ancient

harbor of Ascalon about to be
revive d, it has finally been
called Migdal Ascalon.
The Arabs have left. They had
wanted to leave for some time,
and when the Egyptians offered
to take them into territory
under their control, they ac-
cepted the offer with alacrity.
There are rumors that they
want to come back. Apparently,
the rule of King Farouk is some-
times not appreciated.
Yad Mordehai guards t h e
frontier. But this time the Is-
rael Army is at hand to help the
settlers should the need arise.
The border itself, frozen by the
armistice agreement, has not
moved again. The Egyptians,
who wanted Tel Aviv, Rehovoth
and Beersheba, have had to be
content - with some 100 square
miles of uninviting territory into
which there are crammed some
180,000 people, many of them re-
fugees. It is not a paying pro-
position. So one , ay, perhaps,
the border may nve once more
—back to its former place. And
the wheel of history will have
turned full circle.
•
CHICAGO (JTA) — Five hun-
dred volumes op history, econo-
mics and labor, collected over 50
years by Morris . Seskind, labor
editor of the Jewish Daily For-
ward, have been prented to
Roosevelt College here by the
Chicago chapter of the Jewish
'Labor Committee.

Friday, September 28, 1951

The Family of Harry Cohen

Wishes to extend to their Patrons, Friends and

and the Jewish Community of Detroit, a Year

of Health and Happiness.

MI,V1

n"ri nstv

May the New Year bring greater strength to the

vitality of our faith, and a better, more tolerant

peaceful world in which to live.

FINE FURNITURE

7303 W. McNICHOLS

3 Blocks W. of Livernois

Harry Cohen

UN. 3-0412

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