Purely Commentary
B-G Memorializes
Weizmann's Name
By Philip Slomovitz
Special to Jewish News
REHOVOTH, Israel — Former
Israel Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion was prevented by his wife's
illness from leaving Sde Bokerr
to attend the glamorous Balfour-
Weizmann celebration at the Weiz-
mann Institute on the occasion of
the 50th anniversary of the Balfour
Declaration on Nov. 2. He sent a
I message to the vast gathering ac-
'Badly Tarnished Image of King Hussein of Jordan'
This is not our headline: it is the descriptive title that was used
by U. S. Senator Ernest Gruening of Alaska in his expose, in the
Senate, of Hussein's shrewd tricks to retain American friendship
while he was yielding to a policy of destroying IsraeL
While the State Department continues to support policies that
tend to give comfort to the Arabs—while Arab dictators are spouting
anti-American slogans and are spreading the lie that undermines
all efforts at peace in the Middle East—Jordan's monarch travels
from Nasser to Kosygin and back again to Lyndon Johnson in an claiming the genius of Dr. Chaim
Weizmann, making note of the his-
effort to undermine Israel's position.
Senator Gruening's expose of the true image of Hussein deserves toric Declaration, giving due credit
widest attention. In his statement in the U. S. Senate regarding the to Yad•Weizmann. His message was
a commentary on historic develop-
"backward Arab monarch," he said:
ments_ In it he declared:
In 1937, the report of that Royal
Commission of Enquiry which was
headed by Lord Peel testified that
"We have been permitted to ex-
amine the documents, and it is
clear to us that with the words
'to establish a national home in
Palestine' His Majesty's Govern-
ment had recognized that, in the
course of time, a Jewish State
might arise but it could not say
when this might happen."
There is no doubt that the man
responsible for the Balfour Decla-
ration wanted a Jewish State, even
before the Balfour Declaration
was secured. And although I be-
lieve that the men who brought
the Jewish State into being, in
oar time, were those who built
Diikve Yisrael, Petah Tikva, Ris-
hon leZion, Rosh Pina, Zichron
Yaacov and all the others in the
course of four score and seven
years, there is no question that
the international recognition—of
the existence of a Hebrew nation,
of its historic bonds with the land
of Israel and of its right to return
to this land—by a Power as great
as Britain was then, as well as the
approval of the President of the
United States who declared, on
the 3rd March, 1919: "It is evi-
dent to me that the Allies, in
agreement with our people and
With our Government, have accep-
ted the establishment of a Jewish
Commonwealth in Palestine"—all
these played a role of critical im-
portance in the creative awaken-
ing of three generations which
culminated in the renewed Jewish
State proclaimed in 1945.
And it is right and proper that
this great event be celebrated
at Yad Weizmann, the institution
so marked by the twin crowns of
the man who fathered the Dec-
laration—the Crown of Wisdom
and the Crown of Dominion. It was
right and proper also that this
man, one of the greatest of the
sons of Israel, and of the world,
Here we have a timetable exposing the Jordanian king's double was privileged to become the First
talk and his failure to stay at peace with Israel—as Lebanon did— President of that renascent State
when he had an opportunity to save his kingdom. Is it too much to
of Israel.
hope that the State Department should recognize the need to be on
Neither his name nor his mem•
guard when dealing with Hussein's attempts to perpetuate a state
ory shall ever fade for our people.
of war in the Middle East with his anti-Israel position?
the image
Events in the Middle East since May have seriously tarnished
of the United
which King Hussein had sought to build in the eye of the people
States.
his
irnagemakers
had
sought
to
convey
was
that
of a mod-
which
The image
by his fanatical Arab neighbors to putt
erate ruler seeking to stave off attempts
him off his throne while the King, in turn, sought only to make economically
viable a desolately, backward country.
years been propped up on
The truth is that King Hussein has through the fiscal
year 1966 to be exact.
his throne by U.S. dollars—over $436,000,000 through
would have been no King Hussein
Without that economic and military aid there
nation of
sitting on his throne in Amman. Neither would the artifica//y created
Jordan have continued to exist.
for all this aid to Jordan was
The reason advanced by the State Department
Middle East—that without
that King Hussein was a leavening influence in the
King Hussein's moderating efforts in that area of the world the often expressed
attempt to carry
hostility of the other Arab nations would erupt into a military
out their threats to drive Israel into the sea.
during the 6-day
That fanciful image was destroyed by King Hussein's actions
war in the Middle East.
place at that time, that
It can be said, in the light of the events which took
Jordan was brought
whatever grief lies ahead for King Hussein and the people of
about by their own willful actions.
On May 31, 1967, King Hussein went to Cairo to sign a so-called defense pact
with Egypt which provided that—
"In case of the commencement of military operations, the Chief of Staff of
the United Arab Republic Armed Forces wilt assume the direction of operations
in both countries."
modera-
In an interview on June 2, 1967, King Hussien, belying the image of
tion which he had sought to project, stated:
both in the
••Our increased cooperation with Egypt and other Arab States
road which will
East and in the West will enable us to march along the right
of Palestine. This is
lead us to the erasure of the shame and the liberation
a cornerstone of our policy."
way of staying
On June 5, 1967, Israel offered King Hussein an honorable
Minister of Israel
out of the impending military conflagration. The Prime
sent a message to King Hussein through the United Nations representative in
which
King
Hussein
was
told:
the area, Gen. Odd Bull, in
"We shall not initiate any action whatsoever against Jordan. However,
he will
should Jordan open hostilities, we shall react with all our might and
have to bear the full responsibility for alt the consequences."
Jordan's reply to Israel's conciliatory offer blared forth from Radio Amman
an the morning of June .5,
At 9:15 a.m. on June 5, 1967, Radio Amman carried the following call to
arms to the people of Jordan:
has arrived.
"Free citixens, heroic sons of Jordan. The hoped-for moment
new pages
The hour which you longed for is here. Forward to arms, to battle, to
of glory. To regain our rights, to smash the aggressor, to revenge!"
Radio
Amman
exhorted:
At 9:58 that same morning
Hit
everywhere
and
hit
till
the
end.
The end
"0 Arabs, wherever you are!
of Israel is in your hands. Forward, soldiers, to victory. Cooperate wherever
you are. Fly, o eagles, o heroic pilots."
Less than an hour later, at 10:45 a.m., King Hussein went on Radio Amman
to tell his people:
"0 brethren, wherever you are stationed along the lengthy front! Be certain
that our forces and the whole Arab nation will meet the test and reach the
target. The decisive battle has started and I hope it wilt soon end in the victory
which we alt pray for."
These are not the words of moderation and peace which the image built for
King Hussein in the United States would hare led us to expect.
These are the words of an aggressor—of the leader of a nation who had
never laid aside his intense determination to destroy the neighboring nation
of Israel, the only oasis of freedom and democracy in the desert of Arab
backwardness in the Middle East.
Moreover, secret orders to the Jordanian commanders captured by the
Israelis called for the extermination of every man, woman, and child in Israel.
And yet this same King Hussein. who spurned the olive branch of peace
is
when it was offered by Israel and chose instead the ways of ruthless war,
seen today fluttering from Moscow to Washington, hat in hand, seeking more
weapons to support his continued aggressive intentions against Israel.
realistically
view
King
Hussein
to
The time has come for the United States
and not through illusory, rose-colored glasses. Further economic and military
assistance to Jordan should be stopped at once and should not be resumed until
Jordan has agreed to sit down at the peace table with Israel. If King Hussein
chooses to squander his country's meager economic resources on armed
aggression rather than on its economic development. he should not be supported
in these rash endeavors by U.S. economic and military assistance.
But above all, the people of the United States should appraise King Hussein
for what he really is; a backward Arab monarch more interested in military
aggrandizement than in peace and who has forfeited all claims for further
support from the taxpayers of the United States.
•
•
•
'Between You
. . and Me'
(Copyright 1967, JTA Inc.)
MISSION TO ISRAEL: All is quiet on the surface in Israel now
bustling with
but only on the surface ... The streets of Tel Aviv are don't feel any
people rushing to their normal daily work ... And you
post-war atmosphere in Haifa either - .. In Jerusalem, you notice the
effects of the Six-Day War only because of the throngs of people
steadily moving—at any hour of the day—in the direction of the
Wailing Wall . . . You see there mixed crowds of Jews and Arabs
peacefully strolling in the streets, and it makes you feel as if there
was never any war between them .. . Yet, a feeling of anxiety is in
the aid all over Israel . . . Nobody believes that the Arab rulers will
again engage in war against Israel in the next few years, but every-
body is certain that serious Arab provocations—like the sinking of
the Israeli destroyer, Elath—may take place . . . And the Israelis
today are in no mood to tolerate such provocations Retaliation is
demanded, even though such retaliation may lead to a renewed
war . . . The feeling of the average Israeli is, that neither Nasser
nor any other Arab ruler should be permitted to get away without
effective punishment for any attempt to break the existing cease-fire
situation . . . The average Israeli is in no mood to rely on the
United Nations which is looked upon here merely as a debating society
and a forum for Soviet and Arab vituperation against Israel .. .
Everybody here considers that reliance on the United Nations would
be nothing but a mirage, since the world organization has proven itself
dominated by Soviet vetoes whenever it comes to a vote unfavorable
to the Arabs or favorable to Israel . . . Thus, the sentiment among
the people here is to deal with Egypt, Syria and Jordan on an eye.
for-an-eye basis, since this is the only method which the Arab rulers
understand and which can make them think twice before launching
renewed military adventures against Israel ... The sinking by Egypt
almost
of the Israeli destroyer Elath was a great loss to Israel—it is
half of Israel's fighting naval force—but the people in Israel were
certain that this act would not go unpunished . .. The destruction of
the Egyptian oil refineries by Israeli guns, which followed, made the
Israelis feel that the enemy paid quite a heavy price for his aggressive
act - - . They were more depressed over the loss of lives on the
Israel Pavilion at Expo
The Russian Record of Hatred
Russian anti-Semitism, stemming from Czarism, is not new. It
has been in evidence during the years of Stalin's domination.
The May 2, 1949, issue of Newsweek carried a set of caricatures
of Jews, of the Streicher type of anti-Semitism. Reproduced from
Krokodil, the cartoons of 18 years ago, according to Newsweek, I
"were drawn by a Jew, the well-known artist Boris Efeimoff." History
repeats itself in the Russian heritage of hatred.
•
•
•
Boris Smolar—a Name Inseparable from Journalism
Boris Smolar's name is so well known in the Jewish world that
when one thinks of Jewish news, of newspapers, of cables, or inter-
pretive writing, he immediately connects it with him.
It is not only as editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, but
as the chief despatcher of Jewish news, as the one who has been
first to receive major information about great happenings in Jewish
life in the past half century, that Boris Smolar has gained recognition
wherever there are Jews. And because of that role he has acquired
status in the non-Jewish field of communications.
His column, Between You and Me, which, fortunately, will con-
tinue to circulate through JTA, has been a guide towards an under-
standing of developing Jewish affairs. It is certain to retain that
status.
Our columns already have paid due respect to JTA on its 50th
anniversary. It is the great agency without which Jewish life would
be disconnected, thanks to whose services there are links between
Jewish communities everywhere.
JTA is fortunate to have another excellent Jewish journalist—
Victor Bienstock—as successor to Smolar. Bienstock has had a rich
career of experience that prepared him well for his new tasks. JTA
thus is assured of good editorship and wise handling of news through
its new chief editor.
2—friday, November 10, 1967
Bdris Smolar's
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
destroyer than over the loss of the ship itself ... Everybody is
certain that Israel will acquire a new destroyer—perhaps better and
more modern than the one lost.
•
•
•
SOVIET SHADOWS: What people In Israel are beginning to feel now
is that they are actually facing a possible war with the Soviet Union
rather than with the Arab countries . . . And this is not only because
of the persistent bitter anti-Israel stand which Moscow takes against
Israel at the United Nations ... When Soviet battleships appeared
near the Suez Canal immediately after the Israeli guns set fire to the
Egyptian oil refineries, there it became clear that Moscow does not
intend to limit itself to anti-Israel attacks in the United Nations only...
Behind the shattered Egyptian army now stands a powerful modem
Russian fleet with its gun turrets directed at Israel ... This is not
the same as supplying guns to Egypt to do the job . : . I have
seen the Soviet guns and huge armored tanks which the Israel Army
Many of them
captured on the battlefields during the Six-Day War
—clearly marked with Russian inscriptions of the Soviet factories in
around
in
the
Gaza area,
which they were produced—are new lying
in Sinai, and in the Golan Heights of Syria, all knocked out . - . Many
hundreds more, which were captured by Israel before they were even
engaged in a battle, are lined up in long rows "somewhere inside
Israel" and the eye can hardly catch where these rows end . . . All
this testified to the active participation of Moscow in preparing the
war against Israel and in supplying Egypt and Syria not only with
weapons but also with military instructors . . . However, this is still
not the same as keeping the guns of the Soviet battleships directed
against Israel at the Mediterranean which is the case now ... III
Israel, 'there is no doubt that the destroyer Elath was sunk by fire
directed from Egypt by Soviet officers . . - Of course, there is also
the American Seventh Fleet in the Mediterranean waters and Moscow
would hesitate to start anything against Israel openly from its battle-
ships near the Suez waters ... However, with all the trust the
Israelis have in the United States, they doubt that the American fleet
would come to their aid in case of Soviet provocations ... Such inter-
vention would contain the seeds of a new world war which not even
Russia wants .. . Thus, Moscow's military action against Israel would
undoubtedly be camouflaged as action by Egypt, as was the attack
against the Elath . . . The shadow of Soviet direct but camoflaged
on the
MONTREAL (JTA)—More than military adventures against Israel is therefore now much more
at
5,000,000 people visited the Israel minds of the average Israeli than the Soviet anti-Israeli orations
pavilion at Expo 67, making the the United Nations - . . These orations are considered merely as bark-
can
exhibit one of the most popular ing, while the turrets and the missiles of the Soviet battleships
Host to
5 Million People
pavilions at the world's fair, ac-
cording to a report by its man-
agement on the six months during
which the exhibit was open to the
public.
The report noted that more than
3,000 newsmen, both local and
foreign, visited the pavilion and
hundreds of radio and television
programs were initiated there. A
team of 13 Israeli hostesses, all at
least tri-lingual, directed the visit-
ors through the pavilion and parti-
cipated in the various radio and
television programs.
The Israeli pavilion was de-
signed to interpret the over-all
theme of the world exposition,
"Man and His World." The exhi-
bit, consequently, was an effort
to depict the rebirth of the Jewish
nation in its ancient homeland.
Among the artistic activities at
the pavilion were 20 film showings
daily, a festival of choirs, Bible
readings, theatrical performances,
concerts and lectures on litera-
become biting.
•
•
•
ANXIETY AND HOPE: With all the hostile attitude of Moscow
against Israel—and the Soviet determination to stand by the Arab
rulers on land and sea, and in the United Nations—the Israelis realize
that the emergency situation which brought about the Six-Day War is
by far not over . .. You see them going on with their daily work
in stores and in factories, in cities and in the settlements, as if life
were normal for them . . However, at the end of the day's work,
reunited with their families at home, their anxiety comes to the
forefront . . . They talk of the members of their families who are
still away from home, on military duty at advanced positions in the
Suez area, or at the Syrian and Jordanian fronts, or in the Arab cities
and villages now held by Israel under military rule .. • They listen
to their radios, and follow attentively every word concerning the
Arab-Israel situation . . . They discuss every item by the Israeli press
on developments affecting the Arab-Israel situation . . . And they are
hoping that the day will come when they will enjoy a life of real
peace of mind and real security . . . They don't know when this day
will come and don't even try to guess—it may come within a year, or
two or five, or even later ... But peace is everybody's wish in
Israel . . . In the meantime, as long as the present situation exists,
they consider themselves in a state of emergency, even though on
the surface everything looks normal . . . They also know that Amer-
ican Jewry is strongly behind them in the emergency and will remain
so—in sympathy and in large contributions to the United Jewish Ap-
peal—as long as the situation remains what it is . . . And for that
they are very grateful
I -
I i
t'
•:•l•••1