— 18 —
The Detroit Jewish News -- November 1, 1957
Purely Commentary:
JN.F Provides Israel'sMajor Defense
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
JERUSALEM — One often meets people
who will say that what they are primarily
interested in is weapons for Israel's defense.
They are blind to the realities of the most
important weapons of all: the people and
their settlements. It is to strengthen them
that Americans' gifts to the UJA, to the JNF
and to other causes are. so vital.
It is impossible to relate the entire story
of the great achievements made possible with
the aid of American dollars. The gift dollars
are vital. The Israel Bond investments are
so important that only a tour of major in-
dustries will provide a complete understand-
ing•of the country's growth with the help of
American Jewry.
From this vantage point, from the faki-
nating city of Jerusalem and her environs,
the first thought is for the Jewish National
Fund. Say all you wish about guns and planes
and tanks—and the brave men and women in
the Israeli uniforms. Without the , defense
settlements that are being established by the
Jewish National Fund, the defense of Israel
would become impossible.
A ride around Jerusalem provides the de-
sired evidence of the great defense move-
ment made possible by the JNF. In the first
place, the visitor who has returned to Israel,
as we have, after an eight years' absence,
learns that more than 20 new settlements
have now been fully established here. There
were only five on the outskirts of Jerusalem
after the creation of Medinat Israel.
Thus, as you travel from road to road,
from kvish to kvish, you see Israel settle-
ments next to Arab villages, kibutzim of
Israelis on one side of the border, villages
of Arabs on the other. The latter are yellow
and parched, the Israelis' are green. The .lat-
ter dot the area, and are rightfully labeled the
green belt..
But it is the area that is in the 'making
that is especially important. It is a project
like that at Adulam that I wish to relate at
this time—and it will be all-too-brief, consid-
ering its strategic value.
Adulam, which the Zionist Organization of
America, jointly with the JNF, has adopted
as its specific project, is more than a reclama-
n-4,
•
tion undertatking. It is a people's step towards
greater security and freedom. It is part of
Israel's liberation cry.
At the moment, there is not a single
settler in that area. The JNF has taken an
area of 100,000 dunams of barren, aban-
doned, uncultivated land around Jerusa-
lem, and is planning 17 villages there. Their
importance lies in the fact that this area is
in the Judean hills, that it hugs the iJor-
danian border, that through it invaders
could come and threaten Jerusalem and
perhaps all of Israel. But when the settle-
ments are established, when the Olim
Hadashim, the new settlers, get there,
when the land begins to blossom—as- it
surely will, judging by the experiences of
the past — there will be less need for
sentries and guns, the settlements being
Israel's surest defense.
Meanwhile, Israel will be additionally
cultivated. Provision thus will be made for
new settlers. This Adulam area—whose name
is beinci taken from the cave in which Dvaid
went into
b hiding from Saul (every developed
area seems to reconstruct history here) will
be another garden spot. The Green Belt that
surrounds Jerusalem will be expanded.
JNF leaders have a fine explanation for
Adulam and similar developments. They
point out that while Holland is building
factories, she also drains the Zuider Zee.
Israel, they say, while she utilizes Israel
Bond dollars for tremendous industrial
projects, also drains the -swamps, removes
stones from barren areas, reclaims and irri-
gates deserts and turns them into garden
spots.
Tree planting sounds like such a routine
business in the United States! But it is so
vital! The forests that dot the land and sur-
round Israel,, the trees that beautify this
country, make every dollar from every tree-
planting project vitally important. • Besides,
the trees are like the guns. They are part of
the defense efforts. They protect the people
and with the people they protect the land.
It is no wonder that JNF is so popular
here—that the tree is so loved, that the set-
tlements are such vital marks of Israel's de-
veloping independence.
The first five volumes of
the Golden Book of the Jew-
ish National Fund, pre-
served for all time in the
Keren Kayemeth head quar-
ters in Jerusalem.