-
Drew Pearson in Israel
5th Article in Series
Israelis Favor Better Treatment for Arabs;
Curtain Between Israel and Arabs Shows Cracks
BY DREW PEARSON
TEL AVIV—No country in mod-
em history has had such odds lin-
ed up against it as Israel.
It is surrounded, directly or in-
directly, by 13 Arab nations with
a population of 100 million people
holding 4 million square miles of
territory. Israel
has only 8,000
miles of terri-
tory, in which
„. live only 2,500,-
000 people. At
one point Israel
is only 7 miles
wide.
Those two and
a half million
people haxe ex-
iperienced a n
Pearson
Arab boycott of their products, a
refusal to let their ships pass
through the Suez Canal, plus at-
tempts to block their irrigation
projects, flood their limited terri-
tory with hostile refugees, isolate
them in the United Nations, bar
them from other international or-
ganizations and, in brief, banish
Israel from contacts with the
world.
None of these has succeeded.
They have not succeeded because,
as in the battle of David and Go-
liath, of the agility, determination,
and indomitable spirit of the Jew-
ish people. But what of the fu-
ture? Can one small nation hold
out forever against such odds?
The probable answer is: Given
enough aid by American Jews,
plus modern missiles from
France to offset the German
scientist-made missiles in Egypt,
Israel can survive. However, no
area wants to live under such
tension.
So the real long-range solution
for the Near East is peaceful co-
operation between Israel and its
Arab neighbors. Israel's scien-
tists, doctors, and economists
have much to offer the Arabs in
the way of health, harnessing the
sun's rays, desalinization of water,
eradication of flies and mosqui-
toes, joint irrigation, use of elec-
tric power, and industrial know-
how. Nevertheless, the Dust Cur-
tain between the two areas has
long remained more opaque and
impenetrable than the one-time
Iron Curtain between East and
West.
A few encouraging cracks, how-
ever, are beginning to show in the
Dust Curtain.
One was the election to the Is-
raeli Knesset last November of
Yuri Avnery, editor of "This
World," who ran on a ticket of
cooperation with the Arabs. He
had maintained that the Israeli
government was unfair to the Arab
population inside Israel and must
be more conciliatory toward the
Arab population outside Israel.
Avnery, a Jew, pounded on this
theme so hard that the Eshkol
government cracked down on him
with the severest libel law in
modern times. It removed truth as
a defense against libel and since
Avnery was publishing a weekly
paper, set up an entirely different
set of laws for weeklies as against
dailies.
When it came to libel by week-
ly papers, not only the editor and
publisher but the printers, the
newsboys, and the newsstand ven-
dors were held subject to criminal
libel, with a penalty of one year in
prison if convicted.
So Avnery decided to run for the
Knesset, where he would have im-
munity from libel. He won. Fur-
thermore he won by a command-
ing margin, almost enough to
elect two Knesset members in-
stead of one.
Avnery's first move as a mem-
ber of the Knesset was to propose
an Israeli Arab serve as speaker.
He got nowhere. But he plans fur-
ther moves, namely appointment
of an Arab as deputy minister of
religion, since there are both Chris-
tians and Moslems living in Is-
rael. On this he may win.
On the other side of the Dust
Curtain, President Bourguiba of
Tunisia has bolted the rigid anti-
Israel stand of Egypt's Nasser and
said that Israel offers opportuni-
ties for peaceful coexistence with
the Arab world.
The governments of Lebanon
and Jordan, while not vocal, are
known to hope for peaceful co-
existence. King Hussein cannot
come out for this any more than
Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas
can officially endorse school inte-
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
fields, claiming ownership. The gration. Nevertheless, Faubus is
to The Jewish News)
TEL AVIV — An Israeli spokes- area is entirely within Israeli ter- integrating the schools of Arkan-
sas while King Hussein is care-
man reported Wednesday that Syri- ritory.
(In Cairo Wednesday, Presi- fully avoiding war.
an gunners southeast of Lake Ti-
Second-Class Citizens
berias opened fire Tuesday on an dent Gamal Abdel Nasser de-
Meanwhile, Israel has a great
Israeli tractor as it completed a nounced the United States' lat-
ploughing assignment. An Israeli est arms sale to Israel and ac- opportunity to make the Arabs in-
covering unit returned the fire. cused Washington and .London side its own boundaries a model
of spurring the formation of a of Jewish-Moslem cooperation.
There were no casualties.
Cultivation of the fieldS started new conservative coalition in the There are 210,000 Arabs living in-
Tuesday morning and the Syrians Middle East to oppose Arab side Israel; most of them are still
under military rule. A group of
did not try to interfere. When the revolutionaries.
prominent
Jewish and Arab pro-
last of the tractors finished the
(It was Nasser's sharpest criti-
job, the Syrians suddenly opened cism of the U.S. in months, but fessors and intellectuals have or-
with heavy machinegun fire. The his harshest words were reserved ganized "the Jewish-Arab Com-
Syrians have consistently tried to for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia mittee for the Abolition of Military
prevent Israeli ploughing of the and virtually tore up their six- Government"; but despite their ef-
month-old peace agreement on forts, the Knesset voted, in Feb-
ruary, 1963, 57 to 56; to continue
Yemen.
military rule.
Parade Set for Haifa
(Egypt's president threatened to
Premier Eshkol had promised to
Despite Opposition .
keep an estimated 70,000 Egyptian put across "far-reaching reforms"
troops in Yemen for five more in military government for the
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
years to see that a proper nation- Arabs, but those reforms turned
JERUSALEM — The Parlia- al government is established. He
mentary Foreign and Security Af- also attacked Habib Bouguiba of out to be so pallid that various
Knesset members vigorously de-
fairs Committee approved Wednes- Tunisia and the Shah of Iran.
nounced
them. Said Y. Khazin, a
day the government's decision to
(Ironically, Nasser's speech
hold this year's Independence Day celebrated Egypt's union with member of the Alapam party: "This
parade in Haifa after the matter Syria in 1958, a union that was administration has relegated the
to the status of second-class
was debated in the Knesset.
broken up by a Syrian Army re- Arabs
citizens."
The issue was referred to com- volt in 1961. Only Tuesday it was
The Arab population inside Is-
mittee after a motion opposing learned that the Syrian premier
the Haifa site decision was sub- has been overthrown by an army rael has benefited by the higher
Israeli standard of living and in-
- -., witted by former Premier David coup.)
creased job opportunities; how-
Ben-Gurion's Israel Workers Par-
ever,
young Arabs coming from
ty and the Gahal Herut- Nazi Sentenced to Life
Galilee to Haifa to get jobs find
Liberal alignment. The two oppo-
sition parties severely criticized for Killing Jews in Poland housing almost impossible. Jewish
families will not take them in; so
the decision at a plenary Knesset
BOHN (JTA)—Kurt Jericho, 57,
session last week, accusing the was sentenced to life imprison- young Arabs either have to adopt
government of having yielded to ment in Lueneberg for murdering Jewish names or commute long
pressure from foreign embassies four Jews, including two children, distances to and from their homes.
who refuse to recognize Jerusalem in the Czenstochowa Ghetto in oc- The government has promised to
build a hostel for Arab workers,
as the capital of Israel.
cupied Poland in 1942 and 1943. but so far has not done so.
Every year these emissaries Alfred Loebel, 51, one of Jericho's
The treatment of Arabs inside
have made the same request to the co-defendants was acquitted.
Israel remains the most important
Israel government not to hold the
The principal defendant is Paul
parade in Jerusalem. However, Degenhardt, 71, charged with per- step the Israel government could
under the premiership of David sonally murdering or ordering the take toward removing the Dust
Ben-Gurion their request was re- execution of 496 Jews in the ghetto Curtain which now separates two
Semitic people who should be
jected.
and with helping to choose thou-
On the other hand, Premier Esh- sands of the ghetto's 50,000 prison- working together for peace.
kol yielded and agreed to change ers for the gas chambers at the
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
the site of the parade.
Treblinka death camp.
Friday, February 25, 1966-9
Syrian Gunners Fire on Israelis;
Nasser Accuses U.S., Britain of Plot
Launch Construction of Rogosin School
ASHDOD, Israel — Israel's
stepped-up program of maritime
training went into high gear here
when ground was broken
for a national nautical school spon-
sored by textile magnate Israel
Rogosin of Allen-
hurst, N. J.
Construction is
being financed by
a portion of Ro-
gosin's record
$2.5 million gift
to the Israel Ed-
ucation Fund of
the United Jew-
ish Appeal, the
largest ever
Rogosin
made by a single individual to
any UJA program.
The National Nautical School, a
boarding high school which will be
open to all primary school gradu-
ates, was the number one priority
project on the Israel Ministry's
1966 construction list. It is the
25th secondary school to obtain
sponsorship through the Israel Ed-
ucation Fund campaign, begun
in 1965.
A self-made man said recently
that, if he had it to do over again,
he'd get some help.—Milton (On-
tario) Canadian Champion.
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