24—Friday, September 16, 1966

Conflicting Views Emerge on LBJ Vietnam Statement

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- - In the
wake of the attribution of a call
for greater Jewish support of the
Vietnam war to President Lyndon
B. Johnson by a Jewish War Vet-
erans delegation which met with
him last week, the President in-
vited leaders of Bnai Brith to the
White House.
After an hour-long meeting with
President Johnson, Dr. William A.
Wexler, president of Bnai Brith,
issued the following formal state-
ment on views attributed to Presi-
dent Johnson by the Jewish War
Veterans delegation. Dr. Wexler
said:
Bnai Brith places little credence
in the validity of the statements
attributed to President Johnson in
which the administration's support
of aid to Israel was equated with
a presumed attitude of the Amer-
ican Jewish community toward the
war in Vietnam. We also find no
reason to accept as substantive
the publicized statements which in-
terpreted the President as having
expressed a near-blanket indict-
ment of Jewish organizations for
a supposed view on the Vietnam
issue.
"Rabbi Jay Kaufman execu-
tive vice president of Bnai Brith
and I met with the President on
Saturday evening. It is our belief

that the President's views were
either misunderstood or poorly
interpreted to the news media.
It is evident to us that the views
attributed to the President con-
veyed neither his attitude nor his
convictions.
"The inference of an interrela-
tionship between future American-
Israeli affairs and support among
Jewish organizations for admin-
istrative policies in Vietnam ap-
pears to us to have been as in-
accurate as it was unfortunate. It
was an inference wholly inconsist-
ent with Mr. Johnson's long-stand-
ing views regarding United States
relations with Israel.
"Implicit in the publicized state-
ments was a contention that most
Jewish organizations do not sup-
port United States policy in Viet-
nam. There is no real basis for
such an inference. In the view of
Bnai Brith, it is inaccurate to speak
of a distinctly Jewish viewpoint
on Vietnam. There is none as such.
The fact is: Most Jewish organiza-
tions have adopted no formal views
or policies on Vietnam."
Meanwhile, JTA's Washington -
correspondent reports that dis-
agreement with President John-
son's request for a publicity cam-
paign by American Jewry in
support of the administration's

Jewish Agency Cuts Budget,
Streamlines Its Structure

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Jew-
ish Agency executive ended a ple-
nary session at which a draft
budget for 1967-68 of slightly more
than $100,000,000 was adopted and
a decision approved to reorganize
the executive's departments by re-
ducing them from the present 16
to eight or nine. The budget for
the current year was $120,000,000.
Aryeh L. Pincus, chairman of
the executive, told a press confer-
ence that the basic aspect of the
budget was a refusal to increase
the agency's debts. The budget will
be balanced, he declared.
He said that, to achieve a bal-
anced budget, the executive de-
cided on a number of measures.
Among them are cancellation of a
9,000,000 pound ($3,000,000) an-
nual subsidy which the agency used
to pay for nonpolitical constructive
work done by the various political
parties in the field of absorption
of immigrants.
A special committee has been
set up to examine ways and dates
on which the allocation will be cut,
he said.
He said the agency would also
examine, on an individual basis,
all allocations granted to other
bodies not affiliated usually with
the Zionist organization. Such al-
locations currently total about
8,000,000 pounds ($2,700,000).
Most of these allocations go to
cultural and educational organiza-
tions, such as the Weizmann In-
stitute of Science and a number of
universities. The special commit-
tee will examine this outlay closely
to ensure its reduction.
The question of whether the re-
organized agency departments will
total eight or nine depends on
whether the two departments on
education—general and religious—
will be merged into one. The spe-
cial committee has been assigned
the task of deciding this question,

Minority of Israel Visitors
Are Jews, Survey Shows

and a final decision is expected be-
fore the next agency plenary ses-
sion starting Jan. 4.
Another major problem of the
plenary was the question of stim-
ulating immigration from Western
countries. Pincus said that "the en-
tire future of the Jewish state de-
pends to a considerable degree on
this issue."
A .s pecial joint government-
agency committee, headed by Pin-
cus and Israel Labor Minister Yigal
Allon, was set up to examine con-
crete applications of recommenda-
tions discussed in the joint coor-
dinating body.
The main subjects the joint com-
mittee will examine are connec-
tions between the government and
agency bodies and the possibility of
establishing a joint authority for
immigrants.

Two Arab Infiltrators
Killed in Border Clash

TEL AVIV (JTA) — United
Nations observers opened an in-
vestigation into the clash Sept. 7
between an Israeli patrol and four
Arab infiltrators in which two of
the intruders were killed. The
other two escaped.
The incident occurred north of
the Yuval settlement near the
point where the borders of Leba-
non, Syria and Israel meet. The
dead Arabs were clad in army
khaki, wore rubber shoes and had
Russian and German submachine-
guns and Russian-type hand gre-
nades. Syrian cigarettes and
matches also were found on the
bodies, indicating they had come
from Syria but in a manner seek-
ing to make it appear they had
come from Lebanon.
Israeli police disclosed that
the dead Arabs were members
of a gang which had already
carried out sabotage actions in
Israel. This was indicated by a
comparison of footprints found
near Israeli sites of El Fatah
commando activities and those
of the dead Arabs.
The patrol commander said his
men opened fire when the intrud-
ers failed to reply to a challenge
and were unable to give the proper
password. The commander said
weapons found on the bodies were
regular Syrian army equipment.
(At the United Nations, Israel
filed a complaint against Syria
for planting a mine in a field on
their border. In the explosion of
the mine, seven Israelis were hurt,
two seriously.)

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The tour-
ism ministry released results of a
survey which showed that half of
all foreign tourists visiting Israel
are Christians and only 38 per cent
have been Jews.
One per cent belonged to other
faiths, and the rest did not indicate
their faith. The survey said that
while only a minority of those ques-
tioned expressed satisfaction with
Israel's hotels and restaurants,
their general opinion of Israel was
very favorable. Eighty-eight per
Laws can discover sin, but not
cent said they would recommend a
remove.—Milton.
visit to Israel to their friends.

to Israel at Cairo Parley

Arabs Hit U.S. Sales

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

involvement in Vietnam was in-
dicated here by a number of
State Department officials.
Such officials thought the Presi-
dent was mindful of domestic polit-
ical considerations. From a foreign
policy viewpoint, however, they
thought that purely "Jewish" ex-
pressions within the United States
might injure diplomatic objectives
in Arab states where the United
States was frying to win support
for its Vietnam stand.
•
It was pointed out that if Jewish
personalities and leaders, including
businessmen and Zionists, publish
statements identifying themselves
as Jews with the U.S. position on
Vietnam, this might be exploited
by Arab propaganda and Hanoi
sympathizers to depict the war as
"backed" by Zionism, reaction,
colonialism and imperialism."
A view emerging in the State
Department, in the wake of publi
cation of the President's request to
the Jewish War Veterans, was that
Jews should adhere as individuals
to their Government's commit-
ments in Vietnam but that a special
Jewish pro-Vietnam campaign
might prove "counter-productive."
One official explained that "ex-
pressions on Vietnam by known
supporters of Israel would not
make our task easier in the Middle
East, North Africa and large areas
of Asia including Indonesia. Their
views as individual Americans are
welcome but a special Jewish de-
marche would pose problems
abroad." Some Administration Con-
gressmen, who advocate President
Johnson's Vietnam policies, took
a similar position. They asked not
to be quoted.
(In Israel, reaction to the report
that President Johnson, in his talks
with the delegation of the Jewish
War Veterans, bracketed his
friendship to Israel with Ids desire
for greater Jewish backing of his
Vietnam policy, has been moderate
and meager. The press reacted
mildly while awaiting clarification
on exactly what had been said by
the President.)

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)

LONDON — Reports of a new
Arab denunciation of U. S. arms
sales to Israel were received here
Tuesday from Cairo where the
Arab League Foreign Ministers
Conference made known adoption
of new resolutions.
In one resolution, the Arab for-
eign ministers said that "Arab
states assert anew their unequivo-
cal rejection of the so-called bal-
ance of power policy in the Mid-
dle East adopted by the United
States and other Western powers
as a pretext to furnish Israel with
arms."
The conference approved a
project to reconstruct and

.

SUPERB FULL-COURSE

Languages are the pedigrees of
nations.—Johnson.

•

-STEAK - DINNERS

PRIVATE MEETING ROOM

COMPLETE FACILITIES FOR PARTIES,
st.9.uus, STAps – SPECIAL RATES.

ST ANI Y.

St-RAMER

STE 4,1,2 .S.ATII 1,24M HE A. 1:71,1 C L.'"-.7 ES

See 1967 COUGAR, LINCOLN,
MERCURY, COMET, Sept. 29th

STEAM ROOM . MASSAGES'. SLIP BATH
EXERCISE ROOM • SLUMBER LUNGE
RECREATION LOUNGE with RESTAURANT

Park Motor Sales

COOLIDGE HWY. at CAPITAL -.OAK PARK
(bet. 8 -and 9 Mile) Phone 544.3E11

18100 Woodward

Betw. 6 and 7 Mi.

TO 9-5000

THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

of the

HEBREW BENEVOLENT SOCIETY

(Chesed Shel Smes)

26640 Greenfield Road, Oak Park ,Michigan

Extend Their Best Wishes for

A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
to
ALL THEIR MEMBERS, THEIR LADIES AUXILIARY,
SYNAGOGUES, ORGANIZATIONS AND
DETROIT JEWRY

HELLO!

WE'RE
OPENING

"further Arabize Jerusalem to
counter Israeli moves."
The Arab ministers also de-
nounced what they described as
"Western policy aiming at main-
taining an arms balance among
Arab states themselves" and
charged this policy "aims at fo-
menting some sort of division
among Arab countries."

FRIDAY
OCTOBE R

PHILIP LANGWALD—President

LEO B. FURST, HARRY PORTNER—Vice Presidents

2 3

ISIDORE SOSNICK—Treosurer

NATHAN P. ROSSEN—Secretory

Be our guest Oct. 23/24
The resort with a purpose!

SAM LEVINE, PAUL JACOBS, ISADORE SHERR—Trustees

LIDO SPA

SAMUEL S. PORTNER—Cemetery Chairman

RABBI ISRAEL I. ROCKOVE—Exec. Director

Belle Isle/Venetian Causeway/Miami Beach

N. Y. MC 5-0050 • Miami Beach (305 - 538.4621

Holiday Greetings

Serving You

Better

For 54 Years

KRAJENKE BUICK

"Hard to Spell, Easy to Deal With"

12800 JOS. CAMPAU

TW 1-2700

2 Blocks South of Davison