THE JEWISH NEWS
Flying to Israel?
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers. Michigan Press AS'sociation. National
Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The JewiSh News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE. 8-9364 Subscription $5 a year. Foreign M.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1952 at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
•
FRANK SIMONS
Circulation Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-third day of Adar, 5718, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions, Vayakhel-Pekude, Ex. 35:1-50:58; Num. 19:1-22. Prophetical portion,
Ezek. 36:16-38.
Licht Benshen, Friday, March 14, 5:53 p.
VOL. XXXIII, No. 2
March 14, 1958
Page Four
Fantastic Arabian Feuds and Rumors
Fantastic Arabian Nights stories are
being circulated from the Middle East.
One tale charges the Saudi Arabian
king with having plotted to assassinate
Gamal Abdel Nasser.
In another report, the Egyptian dicta-
tor is accused of having plotted to murder
President Habib Bourguiba of Tunis.
In the midst of such confusion, the
Western world is making feeble attempts
to create order out of chaos, and one won-
ders whether realism has yet gained a
foothold in the area, where political tur-
moil affects the security of the world.
*
*
*
There is no doubt about the genuine-
ness of some of the stories that come
from the Middle East. Assassination often
is the accepted policy among dictators,
and one would have to be most unrealistic
to ignore some of them.
But the coloration of the tales com-
pels doubt about some of them. Rumors
from that area often are spread to accom-
plish certain purposes, just as the scores
of tales that have been spread against
Israel in the course of the Jewish State's
existence have been aimed as trial bal-
loons in efforts to destroy the small and
struggling Jewish community.
At the moment, there is a rumor in
Cairo that an "independent" Arab state
of Palestine will be declared today, the
anniversary of the withdrawal of the Is-
raeli troops from Gaza, the intention being
to establish Gaza as such a state.
This rumor is -reported in the London
Times, whose Cairo correspondent stated
that adherence of the Arab - refugees now
living in Syria and Lebanon to the envis-
ioned "independent state" would be pro-
claimed speedily after the "state" comes
into being. The correspondent states that
it is anticipated that Gaza-Palestine will
be offered membership in the United
Arab Republic, the move being intended
to arouse the half million Arab refugees
in Jordan to rioting, in order to embarrass
tile - Arab Federation composed of Jordan
and Iraq.
The background of the situation must
be understood for realization of the facts.
The original United Nations decision
of 1947, for the partition of Palestine into
Jewish and Arab states, was sabotaged
and eventually destroyed by the war
waged against the new state of Israel by
the combined Arab nations. If there were
to be any sort of solution of the Arab
refugee problem on the basis of indepen-
dent statehood, those who are now in
Jordan would have to be given indepen-
Mo'os Hitim Fund
The approach of Passover brings to
us the perennial need to provide a fund
for less-fortunate families in our midst
for whom we must provide the holiday's
necessary food products.
Our traditional Mo'os Hitim Fund ful-
fills this need. Once again, the local Mo'os
Hitim Committee is soliciting the com-
munity's cooperation to assure a pleasant
festival for the impoverished in our midst.
The need obviously is greater this
year than it has been in more than a
decade. A larger sum of money will be
needed to provide the Passover neces-
sities for the needy and the unemployed.
It is urgent, therefore, that the re-
sponse to the Mo'os Hitim Fund should
be more generous than ever. The contri-
butions should be made as speedily as
possible to facilitate the Mo'os Hitim
Committee's efforts.
dence in the area originally envisions as
an independent Arab territory but which
now is part of Jordan.
*
*
*
Thus, the new Nasser scheme is an-
other attempt on the part of the Egyptian
dictator to threaten Jordan's existence
and to create increased chaos in that area.
Recognized authorities who have made
a thorough study of the refugee situation,
even those who are none-too-friendly to
Israel, now admit that the only solution
to the Arab-created refugee problem is to
settle them in Arab countries, especially
Iraq which could absorb half a million
workers in her lagging economy.
Unfortunately, the world's great pow-
ers, instead of calling the bluffs of such
dictators, have encouraged them by ap-
peasing them and by yielding to their
blackmail threats. This is the root of the
Middle East's major problems: the failure
to defy small men who create big prob-
lems for all.
The problem involving the refugees
could have been solved long ago. The
question of an "independent state" had
been shunned because Jordan desired to
retain autonomy over acquired territory.
It was only when Israel was involved that
false charges of aggression and territorial
expansionism were raised.
But since such an issue now can bene-
fit the Egyptian dictator, the proposal for
an "independent state" is being revived.
Apparently it is the only way Nasser can
fight Hussein of Jordan while, at the same
time, appeasing his own disgruntled Gaza
population.
* * *
Does all this point to a possible new
war threat? Israeli circles believe this to
be unlikely. It is believed in Jerusalem
that a battle between the United Arab
Republic of Egypt, Syria and Yemen and
the Arab Federation of Jordan and Iraq
is inconceivable at this time. A JTA re-
port from Jerusalem explains it by offer-
ing the following comparative figures:
"On the basis of informed estimates, it
was reported that the Cairo-Damascus axis
has 190,000 troops under arms, including five
infantry and almost two armored divisions,
plus 150 MIG fighters and Hyushin bombers
from the USSR. The federation, supplied by
the West, has one armored division, 70 Brit-
ish manufactured jets and 90,000 troops un-
der arms in four infantry and one armored
division.
"The difference in manpower and materiel,
experts here believe, does not give the UAR
an edge over the Hashemite bloc. The latter
has the advantage of geographic position—
their borders are contiguous while Syria and
Egypt are separated and Yemen isolated at
the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. As a result
of this 'balance' there is little likelihood of
military action but a good deal of political
chipping away at each other's position and
the possibility of a military operation only to
deliver the coup de grace."
Nevertheless, Israel is in the very
center of the struggle for power between
the contending Arab forces. There are
feuds among kinsmen in the Middle East,
yet Israel is the one element against
whom all the forces spout hatred.
Some say that real unity among all
the Arab nations would bring peace in
that area closer and would assure an
amicable agreement between the Arabs
and Israel. At the moment, total Arab
unity is an impossibility and peace with
Israel remains remote. Only when Jor-
dan, Iraq and Lebanon will abandon fears
and make peace with Israel will the issue
be resolved. If that were in the offing,
we could predict happy days, soon.
t-
Prof. Bernstein's Enlightening Book:
`The Politics of Israel- .
First Decade of Statehood'
Many volumes dealing with Israel and her problems
may be expected during the young state's tenth anniversary.
One of the first, "The Politics of Israel—The First Decade of
Statehood," by Marver H. Bernstein, associate professor of
politics at Princeton University, published by Princeton Uni-
versity Press, surely will rank among the best books published
thus far on Israel's state agencies and her development as a
political entity.
A profoundly scholarly book, the result of very earnest
study,- Prof. Bernstein's political analyses also have the
merit of forming an interesting historical analysis of early Zion-
ist activities, the party system in Israel, the electoral system
and a score of other issues relating to the new state.
Dr. Bernstein, who was associated with the State Comp-
troller of Israel, Dr. S. Moses, for two years, acquired first-hand
knowledge about the workings of Israel's political system.
The historically-minded reader will be enlightened by his
introductory chapters on the foundations of statehood and the
evolving constitutional framework.
He shows at the outset how the Zionist idea grew from
the hopes in the -Middle Ages when "the idea of a return to
Zion was a cardinal principle of Jewish religion." He reviews
the political history of Zionism, beginning with the Herzlian
era, explains the fiery disputes that at times engulfed the
movement in the controversies between moderates and ex-
tremes, makes reference to the Brandeis-Weizmann conflict
and gives a thorough analysis of the influence of the British
Mandatory Government upon the Jewish activities in Palestine.
There is special interest in his review of the development
of Jewish self government under the British Mandate and
the creation of agencies which became the foundation-stones
for the State of Israel. As a "Zionist political tradition,"
he shows _how "the Zionist movement and Jewish self-govern-
ment in Palestine bequeathed to the State of Israel a
democratic political tradition that helped to mold the political
institutions of the new state."
Thus, Prof. Bernstein indicates that "by drawing heavily
on Zionist practice and Jewish self-governing experience and
by planning in advance for quick transition to statehood,
Israel gained substantial advantages in establishing the
constitutional framework of the new State." He declared:
of the State of Israel has been
"The formal structure
firm and clear-cut from its inception. A strong parliament
is flanked by a weak President exercising only nominal
functions and by a powerful executive that has developed
a capacity to dominate, within limits, the legislative process.
. . . Elections are free, and ballots are cast in secret and
counted and reported honestly. Nationality has been care-
fully defined."
He does, also, indicate the weaknesses: "The nation is
firmly committed to the philosophy of the welfare state.
Although the overwhelming majority of the population • is
devoted to the principles of freedom of expression and
association, constitutional guarantees of individual .liberty are
lacking. The intensity of political action has been heightened
by a multi-party system sustained by 'a system of prOportional
representation. And coalition politics dominate cabinets that
have not yet developed a meaningful tradition of collective
cabinet responsibility."
Thus, the chapters in this book on the role of parties
in Israel and on the welfare state in action add to the value
of the discussions inspired by Prof. Bernstein's work.
The manner in which Israel budgets its finances—great
burdens having been heaped upon it—is evaluated as the test
of Israel's ability to govern.
In spite of the serious 'strains under which Israel labors,
Prof. Bernstein 'writes that "Israel has displayed remarkable
adaptability in meeting the challenge of national independence."
He pays the Jewish state this compliment:
"The quality of political development in Israel in its
first decade must be measured not primarily by the efficiency
of its public services, the competence of its civil service, or
the attainment of a workable degree of collective cabinet
responsibility. Rather, Israel's record in the first decade of
statehood rests in the main upon its demonstrated capacity
to survive as a free society and to develop a substantial
measure of stability in its democratic institutions."
The numerous charts describing Israel's growth add im-
measurably to the values of this very important and well-
written book.
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