iddle East Issue Forced Into n Debate by A tialsrael Drive Arab Boycott Coridemned ; Aim to Stop Discussion THE JEWISH NEWS A Weekly Review Assailed as 'Blackmail' Extension of the Arab anti-Israel boycott to include American business firms, attempts to stifle discussion of the Middle East issue during the next Presidential campaign, attacks on American Jewry and efforts to harm the United Jewish Appeal, are among the issues that were injected in the past few days in the Arab-Israel issue, on the eve of the Eisenhower-Eden talks that commenced on ..Monday. As a result, instead of stifling discussion, the issue is wide open. Public debate is bringing to the fore misuse of huge American funds paid to Saudi-Arabia by American oil inter- ests, and February may, as a result, become the month of decision for Israel. Conversion of the issue into a public debate is creating greater optimism in Israel's ranks. The feeling is that if the American people become aware of the facts, public opinion will demand fair play and the prevention of injustice to Israel. Simultaneous with statements by both President Eisen- hower and Secretary of State Dulles, at press conferences, calling for a ban on discussion of the Middle East issues in the forthcoming campaign, the Dorothy Thompson-sponsored American Friends of the Middle East inserted advertisements in leading American newspapers charging a Zionist conspiracy to influence American policy with their votes. The injection of the "dual allegiance" charges in Ameri- can political affairs was countered last week by Democratic leaders. Repudiating the call for a bipartisan agreement to keep the Arab-Israel issue out of domestic politics, prominent Democrats said that the Israel arms issue and related subjects are legitimate subjects for debate. Displeasure was indicated with the State Department's "failure" in the face of the Egyptian-Czech arms deal and the growing Middle East crisis. Senator Herbert H. Lehman was among those who served notice that they will oppose Mr. Dulles' suggestion to avoid debate on the issue. Declaring that American policy in the Middle East must be debated and criticized, Senator Lehman said: "If ever there was a policy which needed to be examined and re-examined and debated, it is the Administration's course of action in the Middle East. I really don't think it amounts to a policy." Lehman charged that the Administration's action has been founded on "fallacious assumptions and naive con- cepts of strategy," and he added that the U.S. must not allow the balance of power to be upset in the Middle East or the territorial integrity of Israel to be sacrificed. Senators Hubert Humphrey (D., Minn.) and Wayne Morse (D., Ore.), both members of the Foreign Relations Committee, also disagreed with Secretary Dulles' proposal and. said they would refuse to consent to "exempt" the Arab-Israel dispute from 1956 campaign debates. The New York. Times published a dispatch, on Jan. 27, from Cairo, by Osgood Caruthers, revealing that Saudi- Arabia was using large funds, received from oil companies, to foment anti-Western feeling in the Middle East. On Jan. 28, the Times received a denial from the Saudi-Arabian Embassy in Washington. The telegram said that "the pri- mary cause of trouble in the Middle East is Britain's im- perialist policy." It charged the Times with conducting a campaign against Saudi-Arabia. Congressman Emanuel Celler criticized Mr. Dulles' re- quest, called the Arab-Israel issue a legitimate question for debate and said "constructive criticism is not inconsistent with a bipartisan policy. A bipartisan policy does not mean that the loyal opposition sits back, hand tied and tongue tied, when in its honest opinion it sees mistake after mistake being made." The New York Post, in an editorial entitled "The Strategy of Blackmail," rejects the call for the banning of discussion on the Middle East issue. "Translated into less lofty language," the editorial declares, "this means Americans should write a blank check for the State Department and question the pa- triotism of anyone who disputes the wisdom of the Depart- ment's Middle Eastern policy, whatever it may be on any given day." Rejecting the Dorothy Thompson group's view "that a Zionist conspiracy dominates American policy and that the Continued on Page 24 of Jewish Events Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper, Incorporating The Jewish Chronicle VOL. 28 — No. 22 17100 W. 7 Mile Rd., Detroit 4W1*,.. 27 February 3, 1956 Elements Stacked gainst Israel in Frantic Arms Plea Israel's frantic appeals for arms, to balance the 'mounting dangers in the Middle East created by the flow of ammunition into Egypt from Communist countries, this week developed into a new and more serious struggle between the contending elements. The cards appear to be stacked against Israel. While Israel's Ambassador Abba Eban renewed his request for arms from both the United States and Great Bri taro. Arabs pressed the charge that Zionists were using political "pressure and intimidation" to secure help. The communique issued after the Eisenhower-Eden conference in Wash- ington, on Wednesday, called upon Israel and the Arabs "to reconcile their positions," and declared the 1950 Tripartite Declaration will be invoked -to help solve the problem. It was said in authoritative sources that there is being con- sidered the possibility of the American 6th Fleet being sent to the Middle East in the event of an outbreak of hostilities. There is also under discussion the settling up of a United Nations military force to patrol the area. Governor G. Mennen Williams of Michigan, speaking at the National Press Club, in Washington, Tuesday, called for the granting of American defensive arms to Israel to maintain a balance of military power in the Middle East. He said the fundamental problem is lack of a positive AMerican policy in that area. On the other hand, Senator Thom as Francis Green (D., R. I.). a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke against U. S. military assist- ance and a bilateral security treaty for Israel. In a report on the study mission in the Middle East, he said the United States must avoid a situation of becoming identified as pro-Israel while the Soviets become identified as pro-Arab. He said the ultimate solution.to the Israel-Arab problem lies with the parties themselves, with the assistance of the United Nations. He admitted that the Egyptian arms deal with _Czechoslovakia increases the possibility of war between the Arab states and Israel and predicted that this possibility will tend to increase as Egyptians feel stronger and Israelis feel their military superiority diminishing. Congressman John D. Dingell, of Michigan, was one of a group of Demo- cratic members of Congress who indicated they are not inclined to accept Secre- tary of State John F. Dulles' proposal to exempt Arab-Israel issues from discus- sion until after the Presidential election. Rep. Dingell said Arab countries must be given "immediate instruction that unless they cease accepting Russian arms at once and notify the United States of their intention to do so, that within 48 hours we will take the necessary steps to protect not only the interests of America and the free world but of Israel, by providing Israel with such offensive and defensive arms as we might deem necessary for Israel's defense." A plea that Mr. Dulles should reject as "appeasement" any proposals that Israel cede territory in favor of the Arab nations was made Tuesday by the Czechoslovak National Council of America. Suggesting that Sir Anthony Eden will make such a proposal, A. J. Valuchel, vice-president of the Czechoslovak Council, called it a "dangerous and futile scheme which can only result in en- couraging Arab states to increase their 'demands on Israel." "Moreover," he declared in his wire to Mr. Dulles, "it bears a frightening parallel to events which preCeded the tragic betrayal of democratic Czechoslovakia in 1938. That sacrifice proved once and for all that appeasement is no solution in international relations. It did not work in Europe in 1938; it will not work in the Middle. East in 1956." He said members of the Czechoslovak Council, "sobered by memories of our fathers' beloved homeland," could not stand idly by and watch Israel "be of- fered up as ransom for Arab favor." Speaking before the Women's National Democratic Club in Washington, Monday, Ambassador Eban appealed to President Eisenhower and Prime Minis- ter Eden to "rise to the level of their inescapable moral duty" to make it possible for Israel to have arms for self-defense. .Syria Consents 4o Join in liteduteing Tensions (Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News) JERUSALEM—United Nations headquarters here announced that Syria had agreed to participate in negotiations designed by Maj. Gen. E. L. M. Burns, UN Truce Supervisor, to reduce tensions along the Israel-Syrian border. UN headquarters, however, refused to comment on such details as time and place of talks, and whether Syria had agreed to an exchange of prisoners with Israel. Gen. Burns left for Damascus Tuesday to continue preparations for talks. Truce headquar- ters revealed that marking of the border between Israel and Egypt, in the Nitzana-E1 Auja area, was to begin on Thursday, (A JTA report from the United Nations states: Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold has obtained pledges from the leaders of all the Arab states which he visited last week, as well as from Israel where he conferred with the Jewish government leaders, that they will "abstain from any acts of hostility or aggressions and, above all, to settle conflicts, when they arise, by peaceful means." This assurance by the United Nations secretary-general was issued in a summary of his accomplishments during the Middle East part of his tour to 17 countries.)