THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235.
VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Business Manager

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CHARLOTTE HYAMS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the twenty-ninth day of Heshvan, 5727, the following Scriptural
selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuclua portion, Gen. 25:19-28:9. Prophetical portion, I Samuel 20:18-42.
Rosh Hodesh Kislev readings of the Tora, Sunday and Monday, Num. 28:1-15.
Licht benshen, Friday, Nov. 11, 4:57 pan.

VOL. L. No. 12

Page Four

November 11, 1966

Frustrations at the United Nations

There is no disputing about the compell-
ing value of the United Nations as a force for
international cooperation and as the major
instrument for the attainment of peace. All
the procrastinations whenever efforts are
the more reason for deepest regrets over
made to attain peace—whether it is in South
East Asia or in the Middle East—and over
the despairing regulations which make it pos-
sible for a single nation to overrule the deci-
sions of a majority.
A frightful situation had arisen as a result
of an unending series of incursions into Israel
and the attacks on innocent Israeli citizens
by El Fatah invaders from Syria. The delayed
action by the UN, the failure on the part of
the Western powers to induce a peace effort
and the Russian position which gave courage
to• the war-mongers have resulted in frustra-
tions and in doubts whether the international
organization may be coun•ed . upon to prevent
recurrence of violence on a scale that tents
further to disrupt the peace aims in an em-
battled area.
El Fatah tracks from Jordan and Syria
into Israel indicated the guilt and pointed to
the source of trouble.. What had happened
over a period of several weeks might well
have led to another full-scale war. It is to
Israel's credit that the young nation's retalia-
tory acts were limited to verbal expressions
of protest against the aggressors at the UN.
That is why the obstacles that stood in the
way of the Security Council's prompt con-
demnation of the Syrian attacks on a member
nation of the UN is so distressing.
*
*
*
Israel's Foreign Minister Abba Eban plead-
ed frantically for "restoration of peace and
security on Israel's borders. He gave an ac-
count of the numerous acts by invaders with-
in Israel's territory by Syrians, he read from
the actual declarations by Syrian officials
who threatened Israel's destruction, and he
discussions was Israel's craving for a reaffir-
told the Security Council:

At meetings held in August of this year,
several members of the Security Council pro-
tested against Syria's claim that she "does not
regard herself responsible" for the activities of
guerilla groups passing from Syria into Israeli
territory. The Representative of Uganda said:
"Every state is duty bound to curb the
activities of persons resident within its terri-
torial boundaries. This applies to States which
give asylum to political refugees. The
acceptance of refugees carries with it the
correlative duty of controlling their political
activities in case of any border violation by
the refugees against their country of origin or
against neighboring states. The host state is
held liable for the acts committed against other
states, and is thus estopped from wriggling out
of its international obligations."
The Representatives of New Zealand, of the
United States and of other. States, also pointed
out that Syria's repudiation of responsibility
could not be sustained; and that the obligation
to refrain from the threat or use of force against
the territorial integrity or political independence
of any State is absolute and unreserved. It applies
just as clearly to Syria in her relations to Israel
as between any other States. The Charter protects
the independence and integrity of any State —
not merely of States whose existence and policy
we approve, but any State, whatever our emo-
tional or political attitude towards it may be.
This is the law of the Charter. And it also
emerges from Syria's signature of the General
Armistice Agreement.

What mattered especially during the UN
discussions was Israel's craving for a reaf-
firmation that her sovereignty can not be
impugned, that her existence must be recog-
nized and her security assured. Especially
valid were the assertions of Mr. Eban in
behalf of his government that:

The central question is whether Syria recog-
nizes or repudiates these obligations. This is the

heart and essence of our diScussion today. Syria
is committed by her membership • in the United
Nations to respect the political independence and
territorial integrity of Israel as of all other mem-
ber-States; to abstain from the threat or use of
force against that integrity and that indepen-
dence; and to seek a settlement of all disputes
concerning Israel by exclusively peaceful means.
To these general obligations which our Charter
lays upon her must be added the contractual
obligations which Syria has undertaken in the
Agreement which she signed with Israel seventeen
years ago, on the very hill near Mahanayim,
where so many recent acts of infiltration and
sabotage have since been carried out.
Under the 1949 Agreement Syria is supposed
not to launch a "popular war," but on the con-
trary to regard the armed conflict with Israel as
"permanently liquidated." It is her legal and
political duty to refrain from "undertaking, plan-
ning or threatening any aggressive action against
Israel"; to recognize Israel's "right to security
and freedom from force or attack"; to promote
"a transition to permanent peace"; and to prac-
tice all these restraints "until a peaceful settle-
ment between Israel and Syria is achieved." Of
special importance in the present context is Ar-
ticle III (3) of the 1949 Agreement, whose rele-
vant paragraph I quote in full:
"3. No warlike act or act of hostility shall
be conducted from territory controlled by one
of the Parties to this Agreement against the
other Party or against civilians in territory
under control of that Party."
How can this obligation possibly be reconciled
with the frivolous and cynical contention that
Syria is "not responsible" for actively preventing
hostile acts conducted against Israel from her
territory? How can Syria assert to herself the
right to sponsor, praise, approve and facilitate a
so-called "popular war" against a State whose
right of security and freedom from fear of at-
tack she has solemnly undertaken to respect?
On 4 August 1949, the Syrian Representative
in the Security Council made a statement which
still re-echoes in my ears. This is what he said:
". . . As Mr. Eban knows full well, my
Government entered into armistice negotiations
only after most serious reflection. It did so,
because there was an urgent appeal from the
Security Council, and my Government has al-
ways been a good member of the United Na-
tions. Having entered into the armistice nego-
tiations, which were long and arduous, my
Government—as Mr. Eban also knows—did not
authorize the signing of an armistice agree-
ment until it had examined every provision
most carefully.
"The government of Syria honors its word
and fully respects agreements into which it
enters . . ."
Mr. President, is it farfetched to suggest that
the Syrian Government which signed an Agree-
ment with the accredited representatives of the
Government of Israel after "examining every pro-
vision most carefully" ought to examine those
provisions again? .
These principles of the United Nations Char-
ter and these provisions of the 1949 Agreement
between Syria and Israel find recent expression
in the jurisprudence of the United Nations. Less
than one year has elapsed since the General
Assembly, with Syrian and Israeli support, and
on Soviet initiative, adopted a Declaration "on
the inadmissibility of intervention in the domestic
affars of States and the protection of their inde-
pendence and sovereignty."

Because the remoteness of peace makes it
almost inevitable that the brewing troubles
should recur, it is necessary that these
valid statements by Israel's spokesman at the
UN should be generally known. There is
aggression, and Israel has tried to avert an
active war. There is peace machinery at the
United Nations, but it either does not func-
tion at all or it functions with great difficulty.
All of us who are so vitally interested in the
survival of the United Nations must also urge
whenever possible that it should become an
active international organization and that its
impotence should be cured for the sake of
the peace of the world.

'Israel—The View From Masada'

Ronald Sanders, a native New Jerseyite, has mounted Masada,
the historic site of the last Judaean stand against the Romans, the
"great brown rock that rises abruptly some 1,200 feet above the
Dead Sea floor," and from there he has viewed Zionism and Israel.
The result is a history, "Israel—The View From Masada," published
by Harper & Row. In this work he reviews the background of Zion-
ism, the emergence of Israel, the events that have drawn worldwide
attention to the historic developments in the Jewish State.
He begins by outlining the rise of political Zionism and the roots
of economic and practical Zionism, and he proceeds to review the
era of the Mandate, the growth of a national community and the
cultural and spiritual life in Israel, including the emergence of the
literature of the land and the revival of Hebrew. And he deals also
with religion in Israel.
It is clear that he disapproves of the present set-up, and he
emphasizes that "the time has come when a widespread religious
reform is needed in Israel." He protests against intolerance and
he is critical of the religious group in power in Israel, stating:
"The Israeli rabbinate of today, although it in no way partakes
of anything like the spirit of assimilationism which often pre-
vailed among the priesthood of the Second Commonwealth, is
nevertheless in a situation somewhat analogous to it: a powerful
establishment, rigidly adhering to practices and attitudes no longer
seen as relevant by the community at large."
He advocates liberalization by infusing the religious communities
the Reform and Conservative attitudes of American Jewish leader-
ship as "a return to the universalist impulse which has always re-
sided in Judaism."
Hebrew writers are reviewed itr this volume and there are in-
teresting pages devoted to an analysis of the creativity of Shmuel
Yoseph Agnon, winner of the current NobeL Prize in Literature.
Other valuable comments on Israeli activities and the author's
evaluation of the political function of the new state are meritorious
as factors making this work stand out as a practical account of the
social, political, economic and religious developments in the State of
Israel—emanating from the Zionist movement the analytical chapters
on which also make this an important work for those who seek in-
formation about the movement that gave rise to the Jewish State.

'Nuclear War, Nuclear Peace'

"Nuclear War and Nuclear Peace," by Y. Harkabi, in a translation
from the Hebrew, has been published by Israel Program for Scientific
Trabslations, Jerusalem, and was co-published in this country by Daniel
Davey & Co. (257 Park, S., NY 10).
This work is a required textbook on international relations at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It is presented as "specially useful
as an undergraduate study, as there exists no parallel work in the
lish language."
Because this work serves as a textbook in the study of moder -
strategy within the framework of international relations as well as
introduction for laymen to the intricacies of modern strategy and its .
ramifications, there is special significance in its contents. Many aspects
of the strategic problems are discussed in this colame, including the
stability of peace research, the Soviet approach, nuclear proliferation,
and other elements related to the nuclear war-peace issues.

'The Spirit of the Ghetto'

"The Spirit of the Ghetto" by Hutchins Hapgood, first published
in 1902, reprinted as a hard cover book by Funk and Wagnalls in 1965
(then reviewed in The Jewish News), has been issued as a paperback
by Schocken Books.
This impressive work, containing the Jewish settings on New
York's East Side, contains 50 noteworthy drawings by the late Jacob
Epstein. The introduction and notes by Harry Golden add important
data regarding the New York quarters, making the volume as signi-
ficant more than 60 years since it first appeared as it was in its
initial stage.
Hapgood wrote about people and events, about noted personalities
like Naphtali Imber, author of "Hatikvah" who is described as "The
Poet of Zionism," and "An Impassioned Critic," who could be any
idealist on New York's East Side.
"The Spirit of the Ghetto" is a magnificent study and will be
found by all readers to be an unforgettable work.

