THE JEWISH NEWS
A Cloud Over Argentina
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewisb Newspapers, Michigan Press Associations, National
Fklitorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE 8-9364. subscription 96 a year. Foreign $7.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1842 at Post Office, Detroit. Mich., under act of Congress of
March 8, 1879.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ HARVEY ZUCKERBERG
Business Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twelfth day of Tammuz, .5722, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our snagogues:
Pentatetichal portion, Hukkat, Balak, Numbers 19:1-25:9. Prophetical portion, Micah 5:6-6:8.
Licht lienchen, Friday. July 13, 7:49 p.m.
Vol. XLI No. 20
Page Four
July 13, 1962
A Challenge to 'Quiet Diplomacy'
In his address to the delegates to the
annual convention . of the Zionist Organi-
zation of America, U.S. Senator Jacob K.
Javits quoted from a letter written by
our United Nations Ambassador, Adlai
Stevenson, on the question of the plight of
the Jews in the Soviet Union, in which
he said that it is the concern of our Gov-
ernment "to influence the actual situ-
ation favorably," adding: "This is more
likely to be achieved by quiet diplomacy
than it is by public protests."
Taking note of the "quiet diplomacy"
aspect of the Stevenson approach, Sen-
ator Javits charged that this is also the
policy the State Department "employs to
answer angry American businessmen who
have received boycott threats from the
Arab League office in Kuwait or Leb-
anon." The New York Senator pro-
ceeded to state that a "what-can-we-do"
kind of attitude adopted by the State
Department "minimizes the influence
and prestige of the United States, and
its ability to bring about a favorable
solution. -
The regrettable thing about Senator
Javits' criticism is that it is the expres-
sion of a Republican in protest against
the inactivity of a Democratic adminis-
tration, but it must • be recognized that
the State Department attitude is a per-
petuation of practices that have continued
from previous administrations, including
Truman's and Eisenhower's. Neverthe-
less, what Senator Javits had to say is so
vital in the consideration of the issues
inflicted upon Israel in the Middle East
that his remarks must be viewed with the
utmost seriousness. The Senator said:
"This 'quiet diplomacy' approach is re-
sponsible for one of our most glaring foreign
policy failures—our seeming inability, not-
withstanding that we got the British, French
and Israelis to leave Egypt in November 1956
— to lift the Suez blockade and to stop the
Arab League states from boycotting, black-
listing and otherwise discriminating against
Americans who are Jewish or who do business
with Israel. Indeed, I do not know of a single
public protest by our Government to an Arab
state over these practices.
"This negativism on the Near East policy
. is responsible for the slap-on-the-wrist
kind of action that our diplomats administer
to Arab governments who discriminate
against American citizens, and for our failure
to make President Nasser live up to his 1956
promises to open the Suez to the shipping of
all nations without obstruction.
"Year after year since 1956 the Congress
has adopted strongly worded amendments to
our foreign aid bills firmly pronouncing its
repugnance and opposition to the Arab boy-
cott, blacklisting and other discriminatory
practices affecting Americans, and calling for
their termination. This year for the first
time the Senate has accepted an amendment,
which I introduced, requiring the President
to report annually to the Congress on our
progress in eliminating these Arab practices
and threats of intimidation and coercion.
"But U.S. policy will continue to miss the
boat in the Middle East as long as our State
Department refuses to accept the realities
and confines its action to pious intentions
and defeatist vacillations. The American
spirit which led our forefathers to reject any
deals with the Barbary pirates, the determin-
ation to protect Americans which led to the
War of 1812 against the British and which
led President Lincoln to defend vigorously
even in the midst of the Civil War — that
spirit seems sadly lacking in our handling of
the Arab League states.
"It is outrageous that Jordan, which must
have an annual 5 ,10 million grant from the
United States for its national existence,
should be permitted to maintain a blacklist
of Americans without a single public protest
from our government.
"Flrlier-this month five Americans in a
group of ten, none of them Jewish, who are
affiliated with the Gospel Tabernacle of Kan-
sas City, Missouri, were arrested and jailed
for three days when they landed at a Jor-
danian airport. The charge — they were on
a blacklist because of a religious weekly which
they publish in this country. On being released
they were put on a plane for Lebanon, while
the others in the group were escorted through
the Mandelbaum Gate into Israel.
"This kind of insult to American citizens
will continue as long as the Administration
persists in a timid policy toward every nation
in the Middle East except Israel.
"President Kennedy once promised us
strong action and "White House initiatives,"
but what action has been taken in two years
of office in this area to redeem those prom-
ises?
"Our present aid program to Jordan con-
tains no guarantees or conditions, and our
proposed massive aid policy to President
Nasser is equally devoid of any demands that
he keep the peace and work for regional co-
operation.
"We are not one bit hesitant in asking our
Latin American neighbors to fulfill similar
conditions as part of the Alliance for Progress.
"Why do we hold up our hands in horror
at the suggestion that we demand the same
compliance from the Arab states?"
An answer should be forthcoming to
these challenging questions. President
Kennedy has written another reassuring
letter to the Zionist convention, but State
Department policies of "quiet diplomacy"
continue unabated. It is doubtful whether
Adlai Stevenson, when he was in quest
of votes, would have condoned "quiet
diplomacy' in 1952 and 1956, but today
he reiterates the State Department's atti-
tude which remains menacing to Israel.
If a "quiet diplomacy" approach will
remain State Department policy, it may
harm Israel at present, but it may prove
harmful to others and may jeopardize
other issues on other occasions.
There is no doubt that there are times
when it is better to seek solutions quietly,
without fanfare. But this is acceptable
when there is evidence of a firm position
in the main approaches to the problems at
hand. In the matter involving Israel and
the Arab states, we must, deplorably. con-
cede that Senator Javits is correct when
he states: "I do not know of a single for-
mal protest by our Government to an
Arab state" over their practices of dis-
crimination against American citizens.
President Kennedy has spoken on
many occasions, and again last week, in
support of Israel's hopes. Will he now
make a direct move towards leading
Arabs and Jews to a peace conference?
Will he, as the spokesman for the Ameri-
can people. protest the discriminations
practiced by Arab states against Ameri-
can Jews? Until these questions are
answered in the affirmative, Senator
Javits' attack on "quiet diplomacy" tactics
remains a most urgent challenge to our
honor as a libertarian people that must
defend the freedoms of all its citizens.
The Salk Institute
A call to every American to become
"a partner in science" has been issued by
the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
to be located in San Diego, Calif.
Defining the idea as a project for
"life, health and happiness," Dr. Jonas
Salk, the director of the institute, has
made it known that he will have the co-
operation of some of the world's greatest
scientists in biology, physics and other
related sciences. Dr. Salk considers the
Institute a "partnership between the
American people and science." It is a
project that should receive the support,
encouragement and financial assistance
of all Americans.
History Recapitulated
Robert Nathan's 'A Star in the
Wind: Fine Novel About Israel
Robert Nathan, author of more than 20 novels, six volumes
of poetry, books of non-fiction, a work on archaeology and a
children's volume, adds to his noteworthy collection another
superb novel in which he deals with life in modern Rome, with
refugee ships on their way to pre-Israel Palestine and with Israel's
battle against the Arabs after the proclamation of Statehood.
"A Star in the Wind," published by Alfred A. Knopf, is an
impressive work about a Jewish correspondent from the United
States, Joseph Victor, who meets a non-Jewish girl in Rome,
falls in love, and at about the same time that the love affair
breaks up learns about events in Palestine and is transferred
from his planned assignment in Russia to the Palestinian front.
Thus, this novel, written in the fine style for which Robert
Nathan is so well known, combines descriptions of exciting events
on two fronts, and in both instances the plot holds the reader's
attention.
S
It is in relation to the Jewish situation that Nathan's novel
assumes special significance. When Joseph tells his Irish con-
frere, Kevin O'Connor. that he is going to Russia, the Irishman
tells him, in view of what was transpiring in that year 1948,
should think you'd be for Palestine, with all that's going on
there—the Jews trying to get in, and the bloody British throwing
them back out again like shuttlecocks." Joseph resents it. He
had intended to be a musician; he "was a man, not a Jew, a single
human being."
But O'Connor persisted: "I'll tell you this, if it was the Irish
the English were throwing out of their own bit of country like
so many forkfuls of hay. I'd be there on the next boat to decry
the proceedings and maybe throw a brick or two myself for the
sake of my feelings."
S
*
*
Joseph had to find a way of getting to Palestine. He managed
it, and on the boat—one intended for 100 but packed with more
than 700 Jewish refugees—he learned about the Jewish tragedy.
He met Anna with whom he fell in love. Anna was traveling
with her young daughter, and Joseph befriended both, later con-
tinuing his affectionate relationship, intending to marry the
widowed survivor from Nazism. But there was no end to tragedy.
First the little girl was killed in the course of the Arab-Israel
struggle, and later a bullet also killed Anna.
Thus ended the drama, but when O'Connor asked whether he
was returning to the United States, Joseph replied: "I am corn-
: mined, Kevin." The experience during the war, the heroism of
the Israelis, the tragedy that struck Anna and her daughter,
Joseph's promise that he would marry and remain with her-
' it was all part of his having been committed. It is part of the
historical resume of events as they affected Jewry during the
struggle for Israel's statehood, the description of the valiant
efforts of Jews to gain independence, the last straw in their
! fight for existence—all described with skill and with knowledge
of the events as they led to Israel's freedom.
*
*
The non-Jewish girl in Rome also admonished Joseph, before
he left for Israel, that he had failed to take into account his
Jewish background. It was when Joseph witnessed a beating of a
Jew by a fascist that his feelings were aroused, that his sense of
resentment was expressed. He said then that he had not known
about the conditions that had led to such a beating, and his
beloved, Priscilla Greene, chided him that he had failed to take
an interest: "You've never wanted to know! That's been the
trouble."
Thus, a good novel also contains a moral. It also recapitulates
history. In this interesting combination Robert Nathan's "A Star
in the Wind" emerges as one of the better novels of the year.
Living Thoughts of Great Men
Excerpts from Paine, Spinoza,
Tolstoy, Thoreau in Paperbacks
Fawcett World Library (67 W. 44th. N.Y. 36) has issued a
series of paperbacks on "living thoughts" that are certain to be
big sellers and will attract wide attention.
Published as Premier Books, these paperbacks include such
notable works as:
The living thoughts of Spinoza by Arnold Zweig; Tolstoy's
selected thoughts by Stefan Zweig; the important declarations by
Tom Paine, who said: "An army of principles will penetrate
where an army of soldiers cannot," edited by John Dos Passos;
and Thoreau's living thoughts by Theodore Dreiser.
In these four paperbacks are incorporated some of the
world's greatest classics dealing with theology, politics, sociology
and the rights of men.