'Curse of Bigness':
Programming
Challenge
Arabs Pontificate
THE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Review
But Spread Bias
Editorials, Page 4
of Jewish Events
2 Bigotry-
Spreaders: An
Arab and a Jew
*
Gov. M- cKeldin's
Peace Proposal
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper—Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
VOLUME XXXI — No. 16
27
Commentary,
Page 2
17100 W. 7 Mile Rd. — VE 8-9364 — Detroit 35, June 21, 1957 $5.00 Per Year; Single Copy 1 Sc
'Zionist Activities' Charges
Revived in Russian Arrests;
USSR Arms Flow Alerts Israel
25,000 Jews Left Poland in
'57; More Plan to Emigrate
Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News
LONDON—Some 25,000 Jews have left Poland this
year and many more plan to leave, it was reported here
Tuesday in the Daily Herald, Labor newspaper, by Basil
Davidson, who just returned from a visit to Poland. The
correspondent attributes the large emigration to two
factors—the resurgence of anti-Semitism and the fact
that emigration to Israel is again permitted.
Writing of anti-Semitism, Dr. Davidson noted that
although Poland's pre-war Jewish population of 3,500,000
had been reduced—chiefly by Nazi annihilation—to
100,000, anti-Jewish talk had again become commonplace.
However, he reported that there was evidence to show
that intolerance was a smaller problem now than it was
six months ago.
Are U.S. Firms Paying
Extortion Fees in New
Arab 'Squeeze Play'
By ELLEN ROSENBLOOM
(Copyright 1957, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
WASHINGTON—The Arab League's latest "squeeze play"
against American firms doing business with Israel borders on
extortion.
A possible attempt to extort $5,000 from an Arab-boycotted
American rubber company was recently reported in business
circles. An Arab who claimed to represent the League's "boy-
.. cott apparatus" offered to take the firm off the blacklist for
$1,000. The price was then hiked to $5,000. Finally, the offer
was nervously withdrawn.
The company referred to is only one of many American
firms that have been penalized by the nine-nation Arab League
for maintaining business relations with Israel, however minor.
The .League, composed of Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jor-
dan, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Libya and Sudan, refuses to recog-
nize Israel. Their boycott is part of the Arab economic seige to
deny Israel access to world markets.
A recent Cairo announcement stated that the economic
committee of the League adopted new boycott steps. The
League blacklisted motor firms selling vehicles to Israel and
firms under contract to provide services or goods to Israel. It
created a unified boycott system to prevent exchange of Arab-
Israeli goods through third parties.
Firms have reacted in different ways to the anti-Israeli
boycott. The British-American Tobbacco Company, Esso and
- Socony Mobile oil companies have capitulated, to the boycott
and withdrawn from Israel.
The • American Express Company, a travel agency, was
forced to close its tourist office in Tel Aviv in order to main-
taro its branch in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. A company spokes-
man said that the Saudi Arabian office was considered more
important because it catered to U.S. servicemen stationed at
,.the Dhahran air base. (This is the base which bars Americans
- of Jewish faith).
Trans World Airlines maintains regular air service to Tel
Aviv despite the blockade. The Arabs therefore force TWA
to terminate Mid-East service in Israel. TWA is prohibited froM
flying over Arab territory from Israel to the Far East.
American Export Line ships have been compelled to bypass
Haifa if they wish to land at Beirut and Alexandria.
A general feeling among American firms who have been
boycotted by the Arabs is that they intend to go ahead with
business as usual in the Middle East. The U.S. Department of
Commerce is noting the Arab economic discrimination, as evi-
denced by a recent article published in the Foreign Commerce
Weekly detailing boycott practices.
The U.S. Government's present solicitous attitude in deal-
ing with the Arab government boycott is said to protect mili-
tary and oil considerations presumed vital to our interests.
An attempt was made in 1911 to dissuade President Wood-
row Wilson from interceding against Czarist Russian . anti-
Semitism. Possible dangers to American investment opportu-
nities were cited. -
But Wilson said, "America is not a mere body of traders;
It is a body of three men . . . We are not willing to have
prosperity if our fellow citizens must suffer contempt for it,
or lose the rights that belong to every American in. order that
we may eniov_sit. The nriee is. too great."
LONDON, (JTA)—Jews are again being arrested in the Soviet Union for alleged
"Zionist activities" it is reported in the News Chronicle, one of Britain's leading
newspapers, on the basis of reports from Poles repatriated from Kiev, the capital
of the Soviet Ukraine. _
The repatriates said that Soviet security police searched the homes of the ar-
rested Jews, ripping up floors, pulling ap art walls and seizing letters, papers and
photographs establishing links between the arrested people and relatives in Israel.
At the same time, the Moscow radio reported that the newspaper "Izvestia," of-
ficial organ of the Soviet government, carries an appeal allegedly issued by Orthodox
Jews in Moscow asking that "in the nam e of God," further atomic bomb tests be
discontinued." Izvestia added that the Jews also urged that the manufacture of
nuclear weapons be halted and all stockpiles destroyed.
U. S. Mum on Soviet Delivery of Submarines to Egypt
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—U.S. naval authorities declined comment on reports
that Soviet Russia has delivered three submarines to Egypt. The reports predicted
possible efforts to use the submarines to halt Israeli shipping in the Aqaba Gulf by
blockading the Red Sea approaches.
Skepticism was expressed here in naval quarters that the Egyptian navy had per-
sonnel trained and competent to operate the Russian submarines. If facts emerge to
show that Russian sailors are manning the submarines, it is expected that Washing-
ton's interest will be dramatically intensified.
(The Jerusalem correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph reported that "Egyptian
naval maneuvers in the Red Sea" were , being very carefully watched by Israel. The cor-
respondent asserted that Egypt has sent into the R ed Sea bigger and faster ships than the
two Israeli frigates stationed at Elath. He wrote that the main reason for the maneuvers
appeared to be Cairo's desire to react energetically to the efforts of Kings Saud and Hussein
to bar Mecca passage by sea, which hits at profits to Egypt and Syria from the pilgrim trade.)
(On Wednesday, Israel protested against the use of submarines in the Aqaba Gulf by Egypt
and is understood to be asking for anti-submarine equipment to counter-balance the new threat).
Israeli Press Warns on Flow of Soviet Arms to Egypt and Syria
TEL AVIV, (JTA)—The continuous flow of Soviet arms to Egypt and Syria, cou-
pled with Soviet fleet exercises in the Eas tern Mediterranean will eventually "incite
and kindle a fire," the Israeli newspaper Maariv warned here.
The newspaper asserts that the reason for the Soviet fleet exercises is an attempt
to regain with the Arab states the prestige it lost when its weapons in the hands of
the Egyptians were unable to stop the Israelis and when the United States Sixth
Fleet prerented the destruction of Jordan by pro-Soviet Arab states.
Maariv further comments that the Russian moves indicate a policy which is des-
tined to force the Western Powers to include the USSR in deliberations of a Mid-
dle Eastern arrangement. To achieve this end, Maariv fears, the Soviet Union will
use any means, "even setting fire to the region—only to appear later as the fireman."
Israel Concerned Over Series of Syrian Provocations
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—Israel views the latest series of outbreaks along the
Syrian border with seriousness, it was learned here following a meeting of the
Israel Cabinet at which the situation along all borders was studied at great length.
Premier David Ben-Gurion reported on the security and military picture of the
border situation, while Foreign Minister Golda Meir reviewed the political aspects.
Informed Israeli circles hold that the incidents along the Syrian demarcation
line are not a series of isolated events, but rather a part of an_ intentional policy.
These circles believe that Syria is attempting to roll up the border to provide a di-
version from Syria's internal and foreign policy difficulties, and possibly to reverse
the isolation of Syria in the Arab World.
..
nigh Point in
t) .41.1-111..
Drive:
Th€ United Jewish Appeal an-
nounced at its national rescue conference in New York that $44,865,000 in cash had
been collected during the first-half of 1957—the largest sum brought in for any similar
period since 1949. Among the leading personalities who addressed the conference were
(left to right) : Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-president of UJA; Dr.
Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the Jewish Agency; Edward M. M. Warburg, honor-
ary chairman of UJA; Ambassador Abba Eban of Israel, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, and
PruartuvnIrl 111A di:n/Ira!