Is War
Inevitable
in Middle East?
Troubles in
Latin America
and Algeria
Editorials
Page 4
Vol. XLI, No. 23
Courageous
Stand of
Senator Hart
on Schools'
Prayer Issue
THE JEWISH NEWS
C=:1 "1":1=2 c>1 -r-
A Weekly Review
MIC HIGAN
The Sabbath
in the South
Commentary
Page 2
of Jewish Events
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper — Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
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Move to End ,Latin American
Terrorism Through Kennedy;
Issues Probed by State Dept.
7 Must Decide This Year
U.S.
on Arab Refugee Solution
By SAUL CARSON
J.T.A. Correspondent at the United Nations
(Copyright, 1962, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
UNITED NATIONS, N. Y. — A basic decision affecting the entire
Middle East situation must be made by the United Nations General
Assembly at its next session, opening Sept. 18. And the decisive voice
on that issue will be yours — i.e., if you consider yourself as having
a voice in U. S. affairs.
UNRWA was established in 1950. Since then. it has spent close
to S400.000.000. The United States Government paid 70 per cent of that
bill. To pin these figures down with accuracy, one must use the last.
full-year report available — for the year ending June 30. 1961 (another
report, for the year ending June 30, 1962, is still in the drafting stage).
From Jan. 1, 1950 to June 30, 1961, UNRWA spent a total of $368,776,096.
Of the total the U. S. Government had contributed $250,579,333.
U. S. money has made it possible for the leaders of the Arab coun-
tries to keep alive among those refugees hatred toward Israel; the
insistence that they must "go back" to their "homes" in Israel; the
corollary insistence that, sooner or later, somehow, by force if neces-
sary (that is, if Israel chooses not to commit suicide) Israel must be
dissolved, liquidated, driven into • the sea, wiped out. That, among
other things, is what your dollars have bought.
UNRWA operates on a mandate from the General Assembly. That
mandate has been extended at various times for varying terms. The
current mandate expires next June 30. The 1962 session of the General
Assembly must decide, prior to June 30, 1963, whether UNRWA's
operations are to continue, with whose money. under what set of rules.
If no decision were to be made by this year's Assembly — UNRWA
would have to simply close shop.
There is not the slightest chance that UNRWA will actually have
to fold its miserable tents. Somehow, its essential relief work must
be continued. It is unthinkable that people will be allowed to starve,
to sleep in the Arabian deserts, to be turned out of the living world
without any care or help whatever. The world could not be that cruel,
and the United States could not allow that.
But, having accepted that premise on the basis of the simplest
arithmetic of humaneness — the U. S., having paid for the UNRWA
program, has the right to take a good, hard look at the entire problem,
to ask: How many of these refugees are real, and how many are phony?
What is being done to liquidate — not relief as such, but the problem
itself? Is anything being done in that direction? Assuming, as all
humane men must, that a million people should not be kept on the
dole forever, what are we, those who bear the financial burden because
we are humane, doing about the matter?
How many of the refugees are real? Their official numbers, as
shown by the UNRWA registration rolls, have now reached the
fantastic number of 1,151,024 (as of June 30, 1961; that number will
be about 1,200,000 by the time the next set of figures is available).
How many refugees were there when the problem first faced the
world, during Israel's defensive military actions against Arab warfare
in 1948? Walter Pinner, a German scholar who has made the most
exhaustive study of this problem, has shown that the number of
genuine refugees did not exceed 539,000 in 1948. After accounting for
those refugees who had become self-supporting (and therefore not
eligible to relief), reckoning up those who voluntarily took themselves
off the relief rolls by settling permanently in Arab countries, including
those who have been readmitted to Israel under Israel's program per-
mitting reunification of families and adding "natural increase" through
births, the number still did not exceed in round numbers more than
550,000 by 1958.
UNRWA itself estimates that "natural increase" now adds about
30,000 souls a year; that gives another 120,000 since 1958 — making
a grand total of not more than 670,000. In other words, when the 1962
figure is supplied by UNRWA — it will show approximately twice as
many "refugees" on the relief rolls as there possibly could be if the
lists were genuine.
Who are all these extras? Many of them — at least 150,000 — are
dead. The UNRWA ration card in the Arab areas where the refugees
live is a living currency. A ration card is never surrendered! People
do die — but deaths are never reported and, thus, never recorded on
the relief rolls. People do get jobs, other do establish themselves in
business or agriculture or in some sort of service industry — they keep
the ration cards. There are many other forms of just plain chiseling.
But UNRWA goes on, year after year, and the numbers keep increas-
ing, and the burden on the agency keeps growing — and you pay for it.
What is being done to liquidate the problem? The answer is
brief: Nothing.
Is there anything that could be done? There is much that could
be done. The same 1948 resolution of the UN which provided for some
Continued on Page 5
The U. S. State Department's serious concern
over the anti-Jewish incidents in Argentina was
expressed to the Argentina Ambassador, Alvaro
Alsogaray, in Washington. Members of both
parties in Congress, calling attention to the har-
boring of Nazis in Argentina — including Adolf
Eichmann who was spirited out for punishment
in Israel — registered protests against the flagrant
violations of justice in Argentina and demanded
a firmer stand by the Argentinian government
against the recurrence of anti-Semitism.
Direct JTA Teletype Wires to The Jewish News
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—President Kennedy was informed
Monday in
person of anti-Semitic outrages in Argentina and Uruguay by national
commander Theodore Brooks of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A.
Brooks stated upon leaving the White House that the President's
interest made him hopeful that steps would be taken by the United States
Government.
Brooks provided President Kennedy with details of the recent out-
breaks in Argentina and Uruguay and stressed that Latin states seeking
assistance from the Alliance for Progress should adhere to principles
respecting human rights.
The White House does not permit verbatim quotation of the Presi-
dent's comments in such conversations, but it was apparent that Brooks
was well satisfied in connection with the South American issue. Brooks
was accompanied by Felix Putterman, JWV national legislative repre-
sentative.
The ani-Semitic Tacuara organization in Argentina is singled out as
responsible for the anti-Jewish terrorist acts there, in a report received by
the State Department from the United States embassy in Buenos Aires.
Based on this report, Teodoro Moscoso, U.S. Coordinator for the
Alliance for Progress, informed Rep. Seymour Halpern, New York Re-
publican, that the Argentine government told the U.S. embassy in Buenos
Aires that "strong measures" would be taken to curb anti-Semitic terror-
ism." The U.S. embassy has also advised that "the Argentine people seem
horrified by the incidents." Moscoso said.
Continued on Page 17
Algerian Jewry, Reduced to 12,000,
Abandoned by First-to-Flee Leaders
By EDWIN EYTAN
(Copyright. 1962. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Inc.)
ALGIERS — The old casbah synagogue was illuminated by dozens of spotlights
and countless multicolored bulbs. It stood smothered under green and white FLN
flags, its walls covered with revolutionary slogans and the pictures of Moslem leaders.
In the little square in front of it — once known as the "Place du Grand Rabin Bloch"
— after a former Algerian Chief Rabbi famous for his piety and kindness — 20,000
screaming, thumping, shrieking Moslems were celebrating their independence.
I reached the synagogue, in the heart of the mysterious Algiers casbah, at
midnight, as the celebrations were reaching their peak.
A large number of heavily armed FLN guards had prevented me from even
approaching and, under my questioning, had denied that the building had ever served
as a synagogue. "It is just a big house" they repeated endlessly. But the line of 'armed
men mysteriously opened, the c,rowas drew back, and I was invited to enter.
I was the first Jew to enter it since it has been overrun and captured by the
Moslems on Dec. 11, 1960. The steps, on which generations of worshippers have trod,
have become a stage from which three youthful "conductors" were leading the
screaming human orchestra. The Aron Hakodesh has disappeared, the pews were
gone, the windows broken. Contrary, however, to what has been rumored, it is not
an FLN arsenal or Moslem hospital — just a wrecked old building.
In its main hall, sitting on low straw-covered stools, or standing in the shadows,
some 40 Arab dignitaries were waiting for their turn to address the crowds. Their
leader was a tall bearded man, who wore the long robe and the turbaned fez of a
Moslem priest, an imam. One of his aides introduced him: "His Excellency Professor
Moustapha Thes, director of the central Mosque's Theological Institute."
The professor's hands swept round the dimly lit hall as if to the music of the
wild tam and the shrieks which filtered in from outside: "What you see here is an
ancient mosque which the Jews, accursed be their name, stole from us with the com-
plicity of the French invaders 130 years ago. In December, 1969, our brave soldiers,
the "moujahida," armed only with knives, fought the Jews and kicked them out of
here." The imam bowed low: "We shall clean the place, sanctify it and prepare it to
resume its former role, that of the main casbah mosque. I, myself, will come here to
teach the holy Koran."
A young FLN officer, who had until then stood in the background, drew near:
"Religious leaders are always more fanatic," he explained. "We have nothing against.
Continued en Page