THE . DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, May 6,
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State Department Backs Fulbright, but Senate
Retains 'Minglas-Keating Foreign Aid Amendment
(Continued from Page One)
the Egyptian freighter, Cleo-
entire Palestine problem, and patra, "embarrassing" to Amer-
the situation in which "nearly ican foreign policy.
1,000,000 refugees are not able
Abrams characterized state-
to r e t u r n to their homes." ments made by the chairman
Dillon revealed to Sen. Ful- of the Senate Foreign Relations
bright that the State Depart- Committee, Senator Fulbright,
ment made available to Ameri- who criticized the "irresponsi-
can Embassies, in countries ble" picketing by the Union, as
which would be affected, the "completely unobjective." •
text of the House-adopted
Rep. Victor L. Anfuso, New
amendment against the Arab York Democrat, took the House
boycott, which is similar to the floor to laud the Seafarers' In-
Douglas amendment. He said ternational Union for "uphold-
that "in a unanimous expres- ing the standard of free labor
sion of opinion, our field posts in a free country" by the re-
from Morocco to Iraq reported fusal of union members in New
that the adoption of such an York to unload the Egyptian
amendment would clearly not ship Cleopatra.
be in the interests of the
Rep. Anfuso said that Presi-
United States, or, for that mat- dent Nasser of the United
ter, of Israel."
Arab Republic "sees nothing
The Undersecretary said wrong in practicing boycotts
the Douglas amendment and blockades against others,
would be interpreted as dem- but resents when the same
onstrating favoritism for Is- practices are applied against
rael, rendering reduction of him." He said Nasser would
tension more difficult. - He learn "that hatred begets
said it would be seen as an hatred, and that boycotts will
attempt to tie strings to bring forth counter-boycotts."
American aid, making it "an
(In Cairo, the press an-
instrument of political coer- nounced that all Arab ports on
cion." He charged that "con- the Mediterranean and Red
siderable" inaccurate infor- Seas will sever radio contact
mation on Suez transit was with American ships from mid-
being circulated by propo- night Friday, unless the picket-
nents of the Douglas amend- ing of the Cleopatra is stopped.
ment. He said that the truth The Alexandria port wireless
was that "not a single Ameri- operators, and other Arab radio
can ship has thus far been points, announced a decision to
denied passage through the help Arab trade unions imple-
Canal" because of trading ment a boycott of American
with Israel.
shipping.)
Dillon said that Arab coun-
ter-picketing, arising from the Egyptian Ship Unloaded
Cleopatra incident, was "not at Montreal Pier;
unnatural" and meant that at Picketing Continues
MONTREAL, (JTA) — In
least 20 American ships with
1,000 seamen would be affected spite of picketing continued by
within the next month. He members of the Seafarers' In-
warned also - that, for every ternational Union here, the
Arab ship picketed in the Egyptian ship, Star of Assuan,
United States, 30 American was unloaded at its pier here
ships would be subjected to by local members of the Inter-
national Longshoremen's Asso-
Arab picketing.
Emphasizing that the Doug- ciation. The ship has been pick-
las amendment would cause eted since its arrival in the
"repercussions" on vital Ameri- Montreal harbor last Wednes-
can interests in ten Arab coun- day.
A spokesman for the ILA,
tries and areas of Asia and
Africa, he asserted that "wide- explaining why the longshore-
spread sympathy" for the Arab men unloaded the ship, stated:
viewpoint exists in these coun- "We are in sympathy with Is-
tries. He said it "ill behooves" rael. But we have a contract
America "to incur Arab resent- to honor, and it does not allow
ment" by appearing to place us to sympathize with every
cause." The ILA, said the long-
"strings" on American aid.
Dillon reviewed American as- shoremen's union spokesmen,
sistance to Israel in the past, does not regard the SIU picket
and said the Douglas amend- line as "a bona fide strike
ment would only stir up diffi- picket" but rather as "a sym-
culties to Israel's detriment. pathy boycott."
He said the State Department
SIU not only kept up picket-
has confidence in 'efforts of UN ing but also refused to allow its
Secretary General Dag Ham- members to work on a tug hired
marskjold to solve existing by the Egyptian ship to move
problems under discussion.
the vessel from one berth to
(The New York Times re- another.
ported from Washington that
Canadian maritime workers
some State Department officials who started the picketing of
do not agree with the Adminis- Star of Assuan, when the vessel
tration's opposition to the reached the Montreal docks,
Douglas - Keating amendment. received full support at the an-
One official, who has had long nual conference of the Canadian
experience in the Middle East, Labor Federation.- The con-
said that with the seizure of ference, representing organ-
the Suez Canal in 1956, the ized labor in Canada, adopted
United Arab Republic became
a "member of the major
league." Accordingly, this offi- Einstein Awards Given
cial said, it should, behave like at Yeshiva U. Dinner
a major-leaguer and abide by NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
the accepted rules of interna- 1960 awards named after the
tional law. The Suez Canal, this late Prof. Albert Einstein, hon-
official is reported by the Times oring his memory as scientist
as having stated, is an interna- and citizen, were made at a
tional waterway and not ,"an dinner attended by 1,000 per-
irrigation ditch between Israel sons under the sponsorship of
and Egypt.") the Albert Einstein College of
Bernard Abrams, of Jersey Medicine of Yeshiva University.
City, national commander of The awards, consisting of a
the Jewish War Veterans, medallion bearing a has relief
warned that "the United States - of the famous physicist, plus a
Government must stop behaving cash award of $1,000, were
as though it is intimidated and given to Leonard Bernstein,
blackmailed by the Nasser dic- musical director of the New
tatorship of the United' Arab York Philharmonic Orchestra;
Republic." He scored what he Dr. Richard P. Feynman, pro-
termed "disgraceful and sick- fessor of theoretical physics at
ening" ..statements made by a the California Institute of Tech-
Department of State represen- nology; and Jacob Blaustein,
tative, terming the picketing of L Baltimore philanthropist.
a resolution demanding free-
dom of passage through the
Suez Canal of ships of all na-
tions, including Israel.
The picketing against the Star
of Assuan was started by the
Maritime Trades Department of
the AFL-CIO here.
French Leader Lauds
New York Dockworkers
for Picketing Cleopatra
HAIFA, (JTA)—Guy Mollet,
former French Premier, sug-
gested at the convention of the
Socialist International Confer-
ence that the delegates should
consider means of insuring free
navigation, citing the boycott
by New York dockworkers of
the Egyptian ship, the Cleo-
patra.
Mollet said that the Seafarers'
International Union and the
International Longshoremen's
Union were the first to take a
specific step against "piracy," a
reference to the Arab blockade
of Israel shipping.
World Seamen's Union
Backs N. Y. Picketing
_
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish' News)
BRUSSELS—Expressing sup-
port to maritime workers' pick-
eting of Arab ships in protest
against the United Arab Repub-
lic's blacklisting of ships trad-
ing with Israel, Omer Becu,
secretary general of the Sea-
men's Union, declared Monday
that the issue of "freedom of
navigation" will be discussed
next July at the Congress of the
International Transport Federa-
tion. The Congress is to be held
at Bern, Switzerland.
"It is possible," he stated,
"that the Congress will examine
ways and means to ensure free
passage through international
waterways."
Maritime workers like those
in New York picketing the
Cleopatra started their actions
"on their own initiative," M.
Becu said, adding that their
actions were "not in violation
of the statutes of the Interna-
tional Transport Federation."
"The action in New York
harbor did not surprise me," he
said. "On the contrary, I ex-
pected a reaction from certain
maritime and dockers organiza-
tions affiliated with the ITF.
This action is comprehensible
when it is seen that the United
Arab Republic wants not only
to control and defend the pass- ,
age of certain ships through the
Suez Canal, but also blacklists
certain ships which carry out
their commercial activity. The
ITF has intervened on numer-
ous occasions so as to defend
free navigation through the
canal, in accordance with the
international agreements recog-
nized by the United Nations.
This problem is of first impor-
tance for maritime nations and
closely touches sailors in the
exercise of their profession."
Fulbright Honest in His
Views, Israel Believes
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
JERUSALEM — Mrs. Golda
Meir, Israel's Foreign Minister,
reported to the Cabinet Tuesday
on the current international de-
velopments, including a review
of implications of picketing of
the Egyptian ship Cleopatra in
New York harbor, and the fight
over the anti-boycott amend-
ment to the U. S. foreign aid
bill in the Senate.
Israel officials withheld com-
ment on the unfriendly remarks
by Sen. J. W. Fulbright, Arkan-
kansas Democrat, who led an,
unsuccessful fight in the Sen-
ate to have the amendment de-
leted.
The general view among Is-
rael officials was understood to
be that, while Sen. Fulbright's
charges were fundamentally
wrong, there was no question
about the honesty of his motives
in opposing the amendment.
Some Israel • officials, how-
ever, were reported startled by
the Senator's comment about
"corruptiOn" in reference to
American aid to Israel particu-
larly since Sen. Fulbright made
the remark "out of the blue" in
connection with criticism of
U.S. aid to Korea.
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CI
*
Boris Smolar's
Between You
... and Me'
The Summit Conference
(Copyright, 1960,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
It is now almost certain that the Summit Conference, which
will open in Paris in the middle of this month, will not take up
the Arab-Israel dispute . . . There seems to be very little in-
clination in Washington and in London to bring up the Middle
East at this meeting of the heads of the Western governments
with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev . . . If this month's
meeting should turn out to be the first of a series of summit
talks this year, then the Middle East has a chance of being put
on the agenda at a later stage . . . Israel's Premier David Ben-
Gurion, when he visited Washington and London, asked both
President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Macmillan to raise
the Middle East problems at this month's summit talks . . . He
had in mind that discussions on the Middle East might lead to
a decision to discontinue the shipments of arms to Middle East
countries in the name of world peace which Khrushchev has
been preaching so strongly . . . He also had in mind suggesting
the same idea to Khrushchev who is the principal supplier of
arms to the ,Arab countries and whom he asked for a meeting
. . . However, Khrushchev is aware of Ben-Gurion's ideas and
obviously wants no part of them .. . It is for this reason that
he did not reply to Ben-Gurion's offer to meet with him . . •
While there is no doubt that both Washington and London
would favor a reduction of arms in the Middle East, Khrushchev
seems little impressed with Ben-Gurion's plea for disarmament
. . . The Soviet argument, I learn, is that there are no nuclear
weapons in the Middle East, while Soviet disarmament proposals
are, aimed only at nuclear weapons . • . As to conventional arms
—tanks, guns and bombs—Khrushchev still favors their use as
part of his game of competitive coexistence . . . Especially in
the Middle East, where he is determined to further Soviet
penetration by espousing the cause of the Arabs against Israel
. . . Washington experts therefore see no advantage in raising
the Middle East question with Khrushchev at the summit con-
ference now.
Behind The Scene
The American Jewish Congress is facing a serious internal
rift which will have its reverberations at its biennial conven-
tion scheduled the end of this month ... There is a sharp divi-
sion of opinion in its -top leadership with regard to the basic
policy of the organization . . . The conflict centers around this
issue which has deeply troubled the American Jewish Congress
movement for the past years . . . Should the AJ Congress be
more Jewish in its activities, or should the organization consider
its civil rights activities as the backbone of its overall program
. . . Dr. Joachim Prinz, president, insists on having the AJ Con-
gress expand its work in the direction of Jewish communal
affairs ... He is opposed by a group led by Justine Wise Polier-
daughter of the late Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, founder of the
organization . . . Mrs. Polier, who is chairman of the executive
committee, insists that the AJ Congress must primarily devote
itself to fighting racial bigotry .. . The verbal duel between
both sides was brought to a ,head by a sharp letter addressed
by Mrs. Polier to officers of the organizations . . Dr. Prinz,
infuriated by the contents of the letter, made it formally known
to top leaders of the AJ, Congress that he would no longer be
available for any position of leadership in the organization . .
He actually asked not to be nominated for a second term al-
though it was certain he would be re-elected 131 esident at the
convention . . . His. letter of his intention not to seek re-election
created quite a stir among his backers . . . At a meeting of a
subcommittee of AJ Congress officers he was asked to with-
draw the letter and :to stand for re-election . . He agreed to
comply with this request only after securing acceptance of his
condition that the AJ Congress is to establish a Commission on
Jewish Communal Affairs . . . This would indicate a broader
scope . of activities with more emphasis on purely Jewish mat-
ters . . However, all indications are that the Polier group
does not intend to take things lying down . . . A severe battle is
anticipated at the convention which will open May 26 in New
York.
•
(Accusations that the American Jewish Congress had de-
voted itself "almost exclusively to non-Jewish affairs" and that
it had "neglected all Jewish activities' were rejected at a New
York press conference by Dr. Joachim Prinz, president, who
branded the statements "totally irresponsible." He cited a num-
ber of AJ Congress accomplishments "benefitting the entire
American Jewish community," including the fight against
Aramco's anti-Jewish job practices, the fight against Arab boy-
cott of American firms doing business with Israel, intervention
with the West German Government against swastika smearing
on Jewish institutions and action against attempts to introduce
religion in American public schools. Dr. Prinz denied a press
report that a "revolution" was being planned against the
American Jewish Congress by a number of its affiliated groups.
He revealed that the officers of the American Jewish Congress
had unanimously encouraged him to serve another'.term as
president and that 'he would accept nomination on a platform
of "closing ranks in support of a total AJ Congress program."
The Jewish Congress leader said he was confident the conven-
tion would give him a "mandate" to carry out a three-point pro-
gram aimed at: 1. Strengthening AJ Congress activities in the
area of Jewish education and culture through establishment
of a Commission on Jewish Communal Affairs; 2. Setting up a
Commission on Community Interrelations to study anti-Jewish
sentiment in the U.S., and to recommend action for meeting
the problem; 3. Continuing the activities of AJ Congress' Com-
mission on Law and Social Action in the field of civil rights
and civil liberties.)