N
I
Purely ommentary
C
Non-Jewess Explodes
By Philip
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS -- Friday, October 6, 1961
SO TlipetRrouge Paean — SIOMOVitZ
Martha Gellhorn Exposes Vulgarity of
Arab Refugee Propaganda
"Arabs gorge on hate, they roll in it, they breathe it.
Jews top the hate list, but any foreigners are hateful enough.
Arabs also hate each other, separately and en masse. Their
politicians change the direction of their hate as they would
change their shirts. Their press is vulgarly base with hate-
filled cartoons; their reporting describes whatever hate is
now uppermost and convenient. Their radio is a long scream
of hate; it is their daily bread. And what good has it done
them?
"There is no future in spending UN money to breed
hate. There is no future in nagging or bullying Israel to
commit suicide by the admission of a fatal locust swarm of
enemies. There is no future in Nasser's solution, the Holy
War against Israel; and we had better make this very clear,
very quickly . . . We cannot be too careful. The echo of
Hitler's voice is heard again in the land, now speaking Arabic."
This is not a piece of Jewish or Israeli propaganda. • It is
part of a revealing article in the current Atlantic magazine by a
very distinguished author, Martha Gellhorn, the novelist, former
war correspondent, who has made a study of the Palestine refugee
problem and has reported on it in her article under the title
"The Arabs of Palestine."
Miss Gellhorn's statement is especially timely now, when the
Arab world again has shown its inability to act reasonably, either
among themselves or in their relations with the outside world;
when Arabs in Israel have been instigated to riot against their
benevolent government; when the scandalous situation in Arab
refugee camps is permitted to continue with a thorough check on
the manner in which public funds—mostly from the United States
—are used to perpetuate the existence of a refugee situation
aimed primarily as blackmail against the democratic powers and
as a weapon intended to lead towards the destruction of Israel.
One is left without doubt after reading Miss Gellhorn's
article that there is a Fifth Column among the Arabs in Israel,
that many of them, who have never had such immense economic
advantages before Israel's emergence as an independent state, are
Israel's enemies.
The lies that emanate from the refugee camps, the
misinformation which the United Nations authorities permit to
be spread about the refugees, the threats to Israel—these and
many other revelations in Miss Gellhorn's article point to the
continuation of a tragic situation that is far from 'helpful to
those striving for peace and for humanitarian aspirations for all
peoples.
Miss Gellhorn reaches this conclusion, as an admonition to the
scheming Arab politicians:
"The Palestinian refugees are unfortunate victims of a
brief moment in history. It is forgotten that Jews are also
victims in the same manner, of the same moment. The Arab-
Israel war and its continuous aftermath produced a two-way
flight of peoples. Nearly half a million Jews, leaving behind
everything they owned, escaped from the Arab countries where
they lived to start life again as refugees in Israel. Within
one generation, if civilization lasts, Palestinian refugees will
merge into the Arab nations, because the young will insist
on real lives instead of endless waiting. If we can keep the
peace, however troubled, the children of Palestinian refugees
will make themselves at home among their own kind, in
their ancestral lands. For the Jews there is no other ancestral
land than Israel."
But the Arabs refuse to heed even the pleadings of unbiased
Christians like Miss Gellhorn. They listen only to their rabblerousers,
to those who instigate to war, to those who aspire to Israel's
destruction. It is a tragic development in our time. It is a
menace to the peace of the world—and it is not Jewry's or Israel's
faults: it is the guilt of a saber-rattling element in the Middle East
whose lack of reality in viewing historical facts, whose failure to
be objective in judging the needs of their fellow-men, undermines
basic humanitarian principles. Let us hope for a turn to reality
on the part of the unfortunate Arab refugees'and their embittered
leaders—in the best interests of all concerned.
These hopes assume greater intensity at a time when internal
enmities among Arabs prove once again that the tactics of their
politicians harm their people and hinder their trek to progress.
Only a few days ago, a State Department spokesman acted
as apologist for Nasser at a Congressional hearing, as revealed
elsewhere in this issue by our Washington correspondent. Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Economy Affairs Howard R. Cottam boasted
about the vital role Nasser plays "with his Arab brothers." The
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—The
events in Syria are sufficient to put this State Department Soviet bloc has provide d
spokesman to shame.
through loans or grants, up to
*
*
last March 31, a total of almost
A Russian-Jewish Poet's Testament: 'It Seems
a half-billion dollars in arms
To Me l am As Old as The Jewish.People Itself'
to the United Arab Republic.
All reports from Russia, by qualified observers and eminent
This was disclosed in testi-
vvriters,`have revealed that there is a la-tent desire on the part mony released by a Congres-
of Russian 'Jews to . be affilated with their people, to retain their sional committee at w hi c h
Colonel H. F. Nichols -of the
identity, to be informed about Israel.
Some of the reports were at times difficult to believe, and Department of Defense, testi-
they were not easy to substantiate. But what had happened in fied. Colonel Ni c h o l s said
Russia last week proved the validity of the claims of a sub-conscious Egypt got $315,000,000 in So-
feeling of solidarity on the part of Jews in the Soviet Union with viet arms while Syria received
their kinsmen elsewhere. It all became evident when one of the $128,000,000 worth.
most popular USSR poets, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, was attacked for
It was meanwhile revealed
publishing a poem, entitled "Babi Yar," in the organ of the Soviet that an estimated 5,000 techni-
Writers' Union, Literaturnaya Gazeta, on Sept. 19, Yom Kippur eve. cians from the Sino-Soviet bloc
The title of the poem is important. It is the name of the are active in the Middle East
ravine near Kiev where the Germans shot and buried an estimated including military technicians
40,000 Russian Jews, in 1941. Soviet Russia has failed to make a aiding the UAR training pro-
monument of this area, for unknown reasons. While emphasizing grams. The UAR was the recip-
the German crimes against Russians, the official Communist ient of $157,300,000 in U.S.
regime has played down the crime against Jewry. In fact, no said in the fiscal year 1961,
attempts have been made to disprove the prevalent libel that Jews according to other informa-
—who were the chief sufferers in the last war—started the war. tion provided to Congress.
Yevtushenko, the .28-year-old idol of thousands of young
Rep. John Rooney, New York
Russians, to-whose poetry reading sessions thousands had flocked, Democrat, has told Secretary
denounced all anti-Semitic symptoms in Russia in his poem, in of State Dean Rusk he was un-
which he stated in part, in a translation for which we are all able to understand "why our
indebted to Harry Schwartz, N.Y. Times specialist on Russian government did not grant mili-
affairs: -
tary aid to Israel—especially
since we have not hesitated to
* * * It seems to me that I am as o/d
provide military assistance to
As the Jewish people itself.
countries which have been at
It seems to me that I am a Jew.
war with her." The Congress-
I am tramping through ancient Egypt
man made known his views in
1 am- dying, crucified on -the cross
a letter to the Secretary of
And till this time I have traces of the nails.
State.
It seems to me that I am Dreyfus *
Rooney said that "any other
It seems to me that I am a youngster in Bialystok
country menaced by Soviet
Whose blood is running over the floors
weapons has been granted our
The victims of the hooliganism of the leaders from the
military aid, without question
saldons * * *.
and without delay. And many
Oh my Russian people, I know that you
of these countries have not
Are in essence internationalists
shared Israel's dedication to
But often those whose hands are unclean
freedom and her commitment
-
Brandish your purest of names
to contribute to the defense
How base that the anti-Semites dare to call
of the free world."
Themselves the "Union of the Russian people."
Secretary Rusk, in his reply,
It seems to me that I am Anne Frank * * *.
failed to offer an explanation
Over Babi Yar there is the hum of the. thick grass
of the continued refusal of the
The trees look powerful, like judges
United States to give Israel
Everything screams silently here, and, removing my -hat,
military assistance. The reply
I feel that I am growing gray slowly
pertained mainly to the Arab
And that I am myself a totally soundless shriek
refugee situation which "de-
Over the thousands of • thousands who are buried.
serves our earnest study at this
I am' each old man that was slaughtered here
time."
I am each child that was slaughtered here.
Rusk said: "The United
Nothing in me can forget this.
States continues to support
Let the "Internationale" sound out joyously
some reasonable implementa-
When the last anti-Semite on earth will be buried * * *.
Now this Jewish poet is being attacked with an old anti- tion of paragraph 11 of the
Jewish slogan by being called a "pigmy cosmopolitan." His United Nations resolution 194
implications that there is anti-Semitism in Russia are being (III) which provides for the
resented and a new wave of hatred against him, and incidentally refugees the option of repa-
triation as law abiding citizens
against all Jews, is in evidence in Russia. -
It is difficult to understand such an attitude. The resentment of Israel or of compensation
against Yevtushenko is said to stem from the claim that Russia for those who do not wish to
officially disapproves of and opposes anti-Semitism as a capitalist return."
Rooney pointed out that Is-
disease. Yet, a poet's condemnation of the disease immediately
arouses sensitiveness and revives latent anti-Semitism of which rael is "surrounded by hostile
the Russians refuse to be accused. All of which merely goes to countries, some of whom—the
prove that the attacks are just another proof of the factualness UAR and Iraq—have been re-
of USSR anti-Semitism. All of which goes to prove anew that ceiving weapons from the So-
Russian Jewry is far from secure and that their tragic status viet Union, and some of whom
—Jordan and Saudi Arabia—
remains without visible relief.
have been receiving military
aid from the U.S."
"As a consequence of our
attitude, lacking military aid
able to make full payment at brought to fruition is through and denied membership in any
collective security system, Is-
this time to pay as much as cash.
they possibly can so funds can
"Without cash, urgent aid rael has been compelled to buy
immediately be forwarded to programs for nearly 600,000 weapons from European coun-
the United Jewish Appeal. He people would grind to a halt, tries and to divert a large part
said:
causing untold human suffering of her resources to defense,"
"Our community shares with and impeding the vital flow of Rooney said.
"On top of this, Israel's
Israel a sense of commitment aid which has been helping
to the continuing efforts to help hundreds of thousands of un- economy has been further bur-
hundreds of thousands of im- absorbed immigrants to Israel dened because of tthe Arab
migrants in Israel to become gradually attain self-sufficiency, boycott and blockade which has
self-sufficient citizens. We also and aiding hundreds of thou- continued largely because it
must help hundreds of thOu- sands more in other countries has not been effectively chal-
sands of other Jews in 26 coun- to survive and to rehabilitate lenged by Western governments
and the United Nations."
tries outside of Israel living themselves," Simons said.
_under conditions of poverty
The cash is sought to make
and stress to survive and to possible newcomer aid pro- Haifa Municipal Stage
become rehabilitated.
grams of the United Israel Ap- Opens with Advance
•"In order to make our com- peal, carried out by the Jewish of 10,000 Subscriptions
munity's cash available, I am Agency for Israel; the Joint
HAIFA, (JTA) — The new
calling on everyone who - has Distribution Committee, which
made a pledge to. the 1961 Al- aids aged and handicapped Haifa Municipal Theater opened
lied Jewish Campaign to make newcomers in Israel and dis- with bookings almost sold out for
a payment on that .pledge , . now," tressed Jews in 26 other coun- a year in advance. The first of-
he said. "Only by making cash tries, and the New York Asso- fering was Shakespeare's "Tam-
available now can we make ciation for New Americans, ing of the Shrew."
Some 10,000 season subscrip-
sure that the United Jewish which assists Jewish refugees
Appeal can continue to main- to the United States. The tions, about seven per cent of the
tain its vital life-saving, life- United Hias Service, which total population of Haifa, were
building programs on behalf helps Jewish immigrants to sold in advance of the opener.
of n e a r l y 600,000 people countries other than Israel, The repertory includes, Rash-
throughout the world. The only also benefits from UJA fund- omon, Ruth, Marco Millions and
Inesco's Rhinocerous.
way good intentions can be raising efforts.
Leonard Simons to Head Urgent Allied Drive Collections
Leonard N. Simons, past co-
chairman of the Allied Jewish
Campaign, has been named
chairman of the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation's all-out effort
to convert Allied Jewish Cam-
paign pledges into cash.
Max M. Fisher, president of
the Federation, said that the
selection of Simons to head this
collection effort, and his con-
sent to serve, show how impor-
tant this drive is.
"It is imperative that we
make funds immediately avail-
able to United Jewish Appeal
for the relief, rehabilitation,
and resettlement of our fellow
Jews overseas. At the same
time, we must have funds for
the operation of our 14 local
Federation member agencies,"
Fisher said.
Simons is a past vice-
president and is a member of
the board of governors of the
Jewish Welfare Federation. He
is chairman of the executive
committee of the Jewish Home
for the Aged and serves on the
governing boards of Sinai Hos-
pital, Detroit Service Group,
Detroit Historical Society,
United Foundation and United
Community Services.
Simons said his committee
would be urging contributors
who are in the habit of paying
their pledges at the end of the
year to advance their payment
schedule by 90 days and make
cash available immediately. He
urged contributors who are un-
LEONARD N. SIMONS
Arabs Received
500 Millions in
Soviet Weapons
.
.