Purely Commentary
Tragic Loss for World Jewry;
Eban Deflates Obstruction;
Abortive Eisenhower Proposal
By Philip
SIOMOVitZ
The Charles Jordan-JDC Tragedy is OUR Collective Tragedy
Beirut- Hotelmen
Want Israel Border
Opened to Tourists
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
Not since the horrible death of Prof. Israel Friedlaender and Rabbi Bernard Cantor, who were on a mercy mission
to The Jewish News)
in Poland in 1920, for the Joint American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, has anything struck us with as much pain
LONDON — Leading hotel pro-
as the death of Charles H. Jordan.
prietors of Beirut have appealed to
Charles II. Jordan, as executive vice-chairman of the JDC, personified American Jewry in the philanthropic efforts their government in Lebanon to
that we were conducting to rescue the oppressed masses, to rehabilitate those who could be salvaged from the ruins of open the Lebanese-Israeli border,
it was reported here Wednesday
bigotry-ridden countries.
He had dedicated himself to the major movements that aimed to provide succor for the downtrodden. He was a from Beirut.
The explanation given for that
leader among men, an inspiration to all who sought to assuage grief.
Now it is not only his widow who shared with him his dedicated labors, but the entire Jewish people that sits in request is that tourism in Lebanon
has
suffered great setbacks this
mourning over the death of a great son of Israel.
year, due to the June war.
Friedlaender and Cantor were murdered while on a sacred assignment to aid those who suffered during World
The hotelmen reportedly expect
War I.
that prospects for tourism next
Charles H. Jordan played a significant role in aiding the needy during and after World War II and in providing year will be even worse and they
may face disaster unless the Israeli
havens for the homeless and dispossessed, in Israel and in the free countries of the world.
border is opened so that tourists
Was it foul play?
may come to Beirut over that
Is the death of this great man traceable to the enmities against the people in whose behalf the martyred son of our route.
people had dedicated his life?
A second reason given is polit-
We weep for the martyr—and we are saddened that a man of mercy, a servant in the cause of justice, should ical. Influx of tourists via Israel,
have fallen as a victim of the hatreds that are dragging this world through inhumanities for which many nations may have it was pointed out in the Beirut
dispatch, would obviate reliance
to atone for generations to come.
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in the Near and Middle East." It is believed that the Soviet plan : on access to Lebanon through
offered before his ouster from office by the then USSR Foreign
Minister Dmitri T. Shepilov, is still on the record without having
been acted upon. There were six points to the Soviet proposals of a
decade ago, that:
1. Peace should be preserved on the basis of negotiations; 2.
there should be respect for the sovereignty and independence of the
countries involved; 3. attempts to draw these countries into military
alignments with the participation of the great powers should be re-
jected; 4. foreign bases should be liquidated and foreign troops re-
moved from the areas involved; 5. general refusal to supply arms;
6. economic assistance without conditions incompatible with the coun-
tries' dignity and sovereignty.
And now Russia is in such a frightful state of warmongering!
All realistic proposals made prior to June 1967 could have led
to peace. The situation has been altered. Israel can't be fed on mere
promises to attain what the embattled nation already has attained on
its own steam during a six-day war. Now it is a question of serious
pragmatism: of a recognition by the Arab states that peace is possible
only through direct negotiations. If a third party is to be involved
it can only be effected by common agreement.
The possibility for such a face-to-face seems remote. The one
person who could have been the first to make peace—King Hussein—
is now the most militant opponent of peace with Israel—except on
terms that would restore to him as the defeated monarch, all that
he has lost in the June war: and that is certainly a bit too much to
expect. Nasser appears to have retained much of his power, in spite
of the sufferings he has inflicted on his own people. Iraq has never
even had an armistice with Israel. Syria is under USSR domination.
Lebanon is divided almost equally in Christian-Moslem ranks. No
one dares to be the first to make peace with Israel. What appears
to be even a temporary peace is actually a state of war. We con-
tinue to hope for another miracle in behalf of Israel's eternity—one
that should bring genuine peace to the Middle East cauldron.
Search for New Climate in Middle East
There is need for a new climate, for an abandonment of previous
approaches to the Middle East situation. There are instrusive forces
(Tito, Kosygin, their ilk) who would like to dictate peace. But there
can be peace only if and when those who have to live together—Arabs
and Jews — can speak with each other as neighbors who are deter-
mined to remove barriers and to share the available glories of life.
Abba Eban, the brilliant spokesman for Israel, explained Israel's
desire for a new deal that would assure such neighborliness and
would enable refugees to become productive people when he stated,
last week:
"It is not with the U.S. or the Soviet Union that we have to
live but with the Arab States. It is they alone who can unlock
the Middle Eastern crisis by a radical and explicit transformation
of their policies a..d attitudes. Our neighbors must face the choice
of contenting themselves with the cease fire or addressing
themselves to Israel in direct and peaceful discourse. The deci-
sion to allow the return of refugees from the East to the West
Bank is not 'public relations' maneuver but a political act involv-
ing the collective responsibility of the government. It arose out
of our conviction that the Middle Eastern future cannot be
built on a continuing succession of unsolved refugee problems.
"Israel cannot solve the whole refugee problem within the
cease fire reality. But I do not believe that the Israel public
would be satisfied with a 'do nothing' policy, nor does Jewish
and world opinion want complete passivity. There might be an
effort over an exemplary scale to prove that the conversion of
a refugee into a productive citizen is objectively possible. This
would be a decisive answer to the controversy of the past
(nineteen) years.
"The Arab governments which obstructed a solution then
are now doing everything possible to prevent Israelis and Arabs
from moving towards habits of coexistence.
"The new map of Israel and the Middle East must be based
not only on new physical dispositions but on a new climate of
juridical and emotional relationships."
There are not only intruding elements that are aiming to
disrupt the chances for peace but also the obstructionists who inject
hatred in a climate that could cool and turn into amity. It is under
such conditions that Eban and his associates now are compelled to
act with greater firmness than ever.
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The Eisenhower Strauss Middle East Proposal
-
Many solutions have been proposed to solve the Middle East
issue. There have been suggestions that Israel withdraw from
presently-held territories so that thereupon the Arabs can be mag-
nanimous and offer Israel free passage through Sharm el Sheikh.
That's the price offered for Israel's particular withdrawal from the
Suez Canal so that the Egyptian waterway may be reopened. Some
have gone to even greater extremes—suggesting punishment for Israel
for having been the victor and the elevation of the vanquished to the
role of dictators of peace terms.
These ideas will be mouthed ad nausean as time goes on, unless
there is a genuine face-to-face confrontation.
Meanwhile there is revival in some quarters of the Eisenhower
water-for-peace idea: a suggestion by the former President that joint
efforts for water development projects in the Middle East should be
sponsored by the United States on a large scale to introduce a vastly
improved economic program for Israel and the Arab states, thereby
solving the major problem confronting that area: by means of eliminat-
ing poverty and assuring stability for all concerned.
Admittedly, the Eisenhower Plan was developed by Rear Admiral
Lewis L. Strauss (USNR, ret.). There is no doubt that it was made
in good faith. The idea has much merit. It would establish atomic
desalination plants and would provide the most urgently needed
source for power and for human sustenance: water.
But the authors of the plan overlooked a basic factor: that the
Arabs had already turned down a similar proposal and that obstruc-
tionist tactics stood in the way of providing the necessary elements
that could have fused Arab-Israel friendships long ago.
When President Eisenhower sent Eric Johnson to the Middle East
with the plan for harnessing the Jordan River waters, there was
general acceptance. When the idea, which was to have been financed
at tremendous cost by the United States, was about to be put into
operation, the Arab states decided to reject it because cooperation
meant recognition of Israel. That's where we stand again today, and
anything like a water-for-peace project, regardless of its feasibility,
will prove futile as long as Arabs refuse to see realities staring them
in the face.
There were other developments in the past that might have led
to peace. None other than Soviet Russia had suggested on Feb. 11,
1957, that the USSR, together with the U. S., France and Great Bri-
tain, enter into a pact jointly to refuse "to supply arms to countries
2—Friday. Auaust 25. 1967
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Syria.
Weizmann Scientists
Probe Life on Moon
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Scientists at
the Weizmann Institute have de-
veloped a technique whereby it
may be possible to determine
whether there is life on the moon,
it was announced here by institute
officials.
The technique has been worked
out in the chemistry department
by Dr. Emanuel Gilay. a scientist
who had worked in England during
World War II with Chaim Weiz-
mann. He had been assisted by
two other members of his depart-
ment, Dr. Benjamin Feibush and
Mrs. Rosita Charles Sigler.
Under the methods evolved by
this scientific team, the identifi-
cation of optical isomers in sub-
stances obtained from outer
space would be possible, indicat-
ing whether there is life in the
regions where the substance had
originated.
Dr. Gilav will spend the next
academic year at Houston, where
he will employ his methods with
samples of substances obtained
from outer space. '
\line Old City Arabs in Hebrew Univ. Ulpan
JERUSALEM — Wasif (4,..tda-
mani, a 21-year-old Arab stun lit
living in the Old City of Jerusale n
and previously a law student at
the American University of Beir at,
is one of nine Arab students from
the formerly Jordanian-held Jeru-
salem who have just enrolled at
the Hebrew University's intensive
Hebrew language course (ulpan)
together with about 350 students
from abroad.
Approximately 100 of the over-
seas students are volunteers, most
of them from English speaking
countries, who, having finished
working in Israel, decided not to
return to their home countries but
instead to study at the Hebrew
University.
While registering at the ulpan
office, Wasif Qadamani informed
university officials of his intention
to study economics at the Hebrew
University and was directed to the
faculty of social sciences to ar-
range registration. Within five
minutes of his first visit to the
Hebrew University, the young Arab
student had been accepted as an
ulpan student — and immediately
went to his first Hebrew lesson.
Other Arab students from Jeru-
salem's Old City who have begun
studying at the ulpan include for-
mer students at the University of
Cairo and at the University of
1 Beirut, as well as one who previ-
ously studied at the University of
Munich. Their fields of study in-
clude medicine, physics, mathe-
matics, chemistry and economics.
After a preparatory year at the
university, they hope to be admit-
ted as regular students for the
1968-69 academic year.
Fourteen years ago, Arab stu-
dents were taught Hebrew in a
special course at the Hebrew Uni-
4
versity. During the 1949-53 period,
there were special Hebrew classes
for Israeli Arabs, but as Hebrew
became part of the teaching at
Arab high schools in Israel, there
was no longer any need for special
courses for the university's Israeli
Arab students (who this year num-
ber approximately 250).
More than half of this year's
ulpan students are Americans —
182 students who are here under
the American Student Program
sponsored by the American Friends
of the Hebrew University. Other
countries represented in the ulpan
are: Algeria, Argentina, Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Fin-
land, Guatemala, Holland, Hungary,
Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Poland,
Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa,
Tunisia, Uruguary and USSR.
Firm U. S. Policy Urged in Report
by Congressmen Fa rbstein, Broomfield
Special to The Jewish News
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congress-
men Leonard Farbstein of New
York and William S. Broomfield of
Michigan, in a 21-page report pub-
lished by the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs, presented their
impressions during their fact-find-
ing mission to Israel and made the
following recommendations:
"1. To secure a Near East
peace settlement which will con-
firm Israel's right to live and
prosper as an independent na-
tion should be the subject of di-
rect negotiations between the
Arabs and Israelis.
2. The United States should
join with other nations in recog-
nizing a reunified Jerusalem
with supervision of the Holy
Places within the City by the
various religions orders so that
freedom of religious worship in
these places will be assured to
peoples of all faiths.
"3. Part of any peace settle.
ment should be an international
guarantee of innocent passage
through international waterways,
including the Straits of Than and
the Suez Canal, as an inalienable
right of all nations.
"4. The United States should
be prepared to assist in a just
and permanent rehabilitation and
settlement of Palestinian Arab
refugees. This is essential, and
we believe the Israelis, the
Arab States, and the rest of the
world should share effectively
in this endeavor so long overdue.
"5. Our government should
strive with other nations for
agreed limitations on interna-
tional arms shipments to the
Near East. We should assist in
the development of the national
economics and the improvement
of their standard of living.
"6. Our government's diplo-
macy In the Near East must be
alert, firm, and resourceful to
prevent domination of the area
by any hostile power."
The report of the two Congress-
men goes into considerable detail
in outlining the current conditions
which have developed as a result
of the June war. Their statement
is filled with many facts and
figures, contains a map of Israel
and data on the refugees question
and the aid given refugees by the
United States through the United
Nations.