Mehdi, Arab Propagandist and Assassin's
Defender Doesn't Get the Message
By ROBERT E. SEGAL
(A Seven Arts Feature)
M. T. Mehdi, the most vocal of
Arab propagandists in the United
States, now has his work cut out
for some time to come.
Mehdi, who sends his press re-
leases to American newspapers in
his role as secretary-general of the
Action Committee on American-
Arab Relations (a euphemism for
an anti-Jewish front in this coun-
try), must first get his lines
straight with the Arabs he claims
to represent and then he will have
some explanations to make in the
more critical zone of American
public opinion.
Shortly after Senator Robert F.
Kennedy was killed and a 24-year-
old native of Jerusalem in the
Palestine of 1944 was captured with
the assassination gun, Mehdi told
the press that young Sirhan Sir-
han's act "reflects the frustrations
of many Arabs with American poli-
ticians who have sold the Arabs
of Palestine to the American Jew-
ish voters." He figured that the
alleged killer was inflamed by
Senator Kennedy's "pro-Israel
statements."
Just about the same time, Dr.
Muhammad H. el-Farra, Jordan-
ian representative to the United
Nations, properly bowed his head
and stated: "The Jordan govern-
ment strongly condemns this crim-
inal act committed against an out-
standing American and a leading
public servant." And back in Jor-
dan, Premier Bahjat al-Talhouny
went over to the U.S. Embassy and
wrote in the book of condolence:
"On behalf of my government, this
is to condemn the assassination
that took the life of Senator -Ken-
nedy."
King Hussein himself, appar-
ently without bothering to clear
it with Mehdi, smug in his propa-
ganda factory, said he was "hor-
rified at the senseless crime."
But perhaps the sagest reaction
came from a simple Lebanese
" workman who said: "If this Pales-
tinian (Sirhan) wanted to help his
country. why didn't he go back
and join the El Fatah (terroristic
anti-Israel combine)?" And as if
to underscore this sentiment and
at the same time dramatize how
stupid Mehdi's propaganda line
was, spokesmen for El Fatah .is-
sued their own statement, con-
demning Kennedy's assassination
and disassociating the org-aniza-
tion completely from . the vicious
act.
But Mehdi, having learned noth-
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ing, ploughed right" ahead. By mid-
June, he was blithely writing let-
ters to American newspapers, still
declaring that, Senator Kennedy
was an indirect victim of Zionism
and scolding the victim of the as-
sassination with these shocking
words: "It was morally wrong on
the part of Senator Kennedy to
submit to the pressure of the Zion-
ists and promise sending 50 jet
fighters to Israel so that more
Israeli Jews might kill more of
Sirhan's people and occupy more
of Sirhan's homeland."
Echoing the line set forth by
the American Friends of the
Middle East in earlier American
presidential campaigns, Mehdi
went on to propose a moratorium
on discussion of the Arab-Israeli
conflict by major presidential
candidates. (Let Nixon, Hum-
phrey, Rockefeller, McCarthy, et
al, confine their remarks to
American civil disorders and
Mehdi would cover the Middle
East for the American voters.)
Now we find Mehdi declaring
himself an expert on political as-
sassinations. Just a year ago, he
was boasting of "Arab magnanim-
ity exhibited toward the Crusaders
(of the Middle Ages)" and giving
assurances that a secure Arab
world would never bother to crush
Israel. Along about the same time,
he praised the Arabs for their de-
lightful use of "peaceful pressure"
(boycott) instead of nasty guns
and such.
Mehdi will find out soon whether
young Sirhan's involvement in the
Kennedy tragedy proves good for
the Arabs or bad for the Arabs.
Meanwhile, he might want to go
back and note what the editor of
Ad Destour said in Amman, Jor-
dan, soon after Kennedy was
struck down: "What Arab in his
right mind would do a thing like
this? The only people to benefit
from such actions are the Jews."
He might want also to have a close
look at the proposal of Congress-
man Joel T. Broyhill of Virginia,
who has pointed out that the Ken-
nedy assassination "was an obvioUs
conformity with the stated aims
of the Pro-Communist Arab terror-
ist organization, El Fatah." Repre-
sentative Broyhill then called for
a probe of Arab activities in the
U.S. and suggested that visas of
Arab agitators be revoked and de-
portation orders issued.
eslia-leosita/Alnia
STARTS TODAY!
JILT Editorial Charges Disputed
by Russian Jewish Researcher
Taking exception to The Jewish
News editorial of May 3 which was
entitled "Sad Status of Jews Be-
hind Iron Curtain," Yuri Rozen-
baum, researcher of the Institute
of Law of the USSR Academy of
Sciences, writing from Moscow,
states that his long-time service
with the Soviet government's
Council for Religious Affairs con-
vinced him that the state of reli-
gion in the USSR, notably Judaism,
"Is sometimes wrongly interpreted
in the West." Charging that The
Jewish News used only excerpts
from his statement regarding the'
status of Russian Jews in the re-
ferred to editorial, he wrote to us:
1. Reporting on the "assertions" of
the Soviet anti-religious journal, Nauka
i Religiya, that Israeli schoolchildren
justify genocide, neither your news-
paper, nor the "know-all" periodical
survey, "Jews in Eastern Europe" (the
author of the editorial refers to it)
failed to indicate the source of these
"absurd" claims, whereas the journal
clearly points out that such information
has been obtained as a result of the
sociological research conducted by an
American scientist, Naum Tamarkin.
Furthermore, I called at the editorial
offices of .Nauka i Iteligiya and learned
that information of this research has
been taken from the New Outlook (the
first issue for 1966, pp. 49-58, published
in Tel Aviv!)
So we see that the negative reason-
ing about the Jews, printed in the
Western press (in the given case, in
Tel Aviv), had been ignored by the
standard-bearers of prosperity of Jews,
whereas they lashed out with accusa-
tions of "anti-Semitism" and the "prop-
agation of hatred" towards Jews in the
Soviet Union as soon as this informa-
tion appeared in a Soviet - journal. Isn't
this convincing proof of certain press
organs adopting a biased attitude when
assessing the Soviet stand in the Jewish
question?
2. Referring (but not quoting a single
word) to letters -from Soviet Jews, pub-
lished in Pravda., the author of the
editorial prooflessly claims that "an
apparent pressure" is exerted in the
Soviet Union "upon individual Jews to
join in attacks on Israel." I wish to
say that had these letters by Soviet
Jews been fully published in the United
States, many American Jews, who re-
gard themselves as U.S. citizens, and
not subjects of Israel, would have ex-
pressed solidarity with the letter-
writers' statement that, although they
are Jews, they, nevertheless, do not
consider themselves morally responsible
for Israel's policy.
3. And how about the "discrimina-
tion and persistent prejudices against
everything Jewish" in the Soviet Union,
which your article, above all, sees in
the absence of "the freedom of pub-
lishing newspapers and having thea-
ters." I would like to know what
newspaper the author has in mind —
Jewish-language newspapers, or ones
like yours, which comes out in a
language which the majority of Jews
of that Country speak. According, to
the latest census, a little over 20 per
cent of Jews living in the Soviet Union
know Yiddish. Hence, most of the
Soviet Jews read in other languages
(Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Uzbek,
etc.)
The life of Soviet Jews is certainly
-mirrored in Soviet newspapers, which
come out in these languages (such
papers number several thousand). It
has become a long-standing tradition in
our country to write in the press about
the cultural, economic, scientific and
other achievements of all nationalities
inhabiting the USSR.
I would also like to add that, in addi-
tion to the Yiddish-language monthly
magazine, SOVIETISH HEIIVILAND, the
THE' DETROIT' JEWISH NEWS"
Soviet Union regularly prints works of
Jewish writers. In the last few years
alone, some 300 books of Jewish auth-
ors (Soviet and foreign) have been put
out with an aggregate printing of about
30 million copies. They have appeared
in Yiddish, Russian, Ukrainian, and
other languages.
Three Jewish professional theatrical
and concert companies, enjoying great
popularity among Jews and other
nationalities in the USSR are headed
by such well-known performers as Hon-
ored. Artist of the Russian Federation
Veniamin Shwartzer, and singers Anna
Gunik and Sidi Tahl.
Lastly, Jewish songs and music can
be heard daily on radio programs
broadcast from Moscow, Leningrad,
Kiev, Kharkov, Riga and dozens of
other Soviet cities.
When this letter is being written,
several dozen Moscow movie theaters
are showing a film, "The Story of a
Dive-Bomber," put out by the Lenin-
grad Studios. The director and pro-
ducer, Naum Birman, depicts the fate
of a dive-bomber crew in time of the
war against the Nazi invaders. The pilot
is a Russian, while the navigator is
a gifted Jewish musician and the gun-
ner-radioman, another Jewish chap.
They all die a hero's death. There are
Jewish melodies in this film.
Editor's Note: We present the
Russian Jewish writer's views in
their totality and call -Attention to
exaggerations and misrepresenta-
tions: This letter echoes the USSR
line of prejudice against Israel and
of a willingness on the part of some
Jews to go along with the Commu-
nist line of catering to Arabs at
Israel's expense and of unwilling-
ness to protect the very existence
of Israel. The reference to New
Outlook is in itself a usage out of
context. Data about Russian dis-
crimination comes regularly from
the Communist press wherein there
have appeared revivals of the atro-
cious ritual murder lie. The Rus-
sian press since the Six-Day War
has been filled with cartoons that
are imitations of the vilest of the
Streicher type in Nazi Germany.
The Jewish apologists for Russian
anti-Jewish acts have to base their
deferrals on better proof that pro-
vided in the above letter.
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N. Y. Religious Groups
Join Project Equality
NEW YORK (JTA) — Two
major Jewish organizations — the
American Jewish Committee and
the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations — have joined with
12 Roman Catholic and Protestant
groups to establish Project Equal-
ity in New York as part of a na-
tionwide inter-religious effort to in-
crease fair employment practices
through the hiring and purchasing
policies of religious institutions
and the use of religious economic
power. Eugene P. Heller, a former
official of Bnai Brith Anti-Defam-
ation League, was named head of
the New York branch of the pro-
ject which will be the largest in
the country.
Friday, 'JOE), " '12, 1968-=15
iroka4611;400140i4resiXt:Xosi,x/latict Voir" 4reiiirs