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 11-9364. Subscription $7 a year. Foreign 88.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Advertising Manager

Business Manager

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

City

Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 21st day of Tenet, 5729, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Ex. 1:1-6:1. Prophetical portion, Is. 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23.

Candle lighting, Friday, Jan. 10, 5:01 p.m.

Page Four

VOL. LIV. No. 17

January 10, 1969

Inexcusable Unilateral Acts Against Israel

World Jewry is being put to the test, and
American Jews especially are being probed
in this time of crisis for Israel and for the
survivors from the Holocaust.
Diplomats who conducted the debates at
the United Nations resorted to strongest terms
of censure in condemning Israel. But these
statesmen in the main were silent when an
Israeli plane was hijacked. They had little
to say about the atrocities conducted by the
terrorists who continue to make life mis-
erable for the civilian population of Israel.
The outrageous act in the Athens airport
seemed a mere incident to them.
Only a week before Israel was censured,
the UN found it necessary to adopt a resolu-
tion calling for an investigation of "Israeli
practices affecting the human rights of the
population" in areas occupied by Israel. But
an Israeli request for an investigation simul-
taneously of the status of Jews in Arab
countries was denied. While the adopted
resolution actually lacked majority support of
UN members, it is on the record as making
another demand that is being rejected by
Israel, but the just condemnation of unilateral
action justified the stand taken against the
UN's position.
Unilaterally also, the UN has been deal-
ing with all the issues that have been involved
in acts of terrorism and in the Israeli counter-
attacks. It is tragic and altogether heart-
rending that the operation by Israel in the
Beirut airport last Saturday should have
shattered the accepted view that Lebanon re-
frains from encouraging El Fatah and acts
firmly to check infiltations by terrorists into
Israel. Presentation of actual facts by Israel
to indicate the sources of terrorist training
and the location of El Fatah gangs within
Lebanon confirm the claims that a firm stand
had to be taken against the type of warfare
conducted against Israel.
The basic fact to be remembered is that
the new terrorism seeks not only to restore
the territories that have been acquired by
Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War but
completely to demolish Israel. El Fatah makes
no secret of its intentions to prevent co-
existence, and under the circumstances any
action taken by the UN is deemed unaccept-
able.
El Fatah policy was formulated on Oct. 15,
1968, when this communique was issued in
Cairo:

"All peace solutions produced in the forum of
the UN, the resolution of the Security Council,
and Jarring's mission, are but bargaining for the
rights of the Palestine people. We reject and op-
pose them with all our might since they consti-
tute an attempt at peaceful coexistence with the
Zionist existence . . . The problem is the libera-
tion of the whole country and not the eradication
of the results of the aggression."

This declaration is simple, clear, direct,
and its emphasis is opposition to coexistence.

That means that Israel will be viewed as
a polity to be destroyed, and a serious ob-
ligation devolves upon Israel's defenders to
present total destruction and a repetition
of the Nazi-type calamities.
On the eve of the tragic events that in-
volved terrorists in Athens and Israel's in-
vasion of the Beirut airport, an Israeli spokes-
man evaluated the sources of terrorism and
pointed to the following:

Arab governments, particularly Jordan, Egypt,
Syria and Iraq, render active aid and cooperation
to the terrorist organizations led by El-Fatah.
Incapable as they are now of launching a frontal
invasion against Israel, and declining to negoti-
ate a peace; they have chosen to encourage ter-
rorism as an intermediate strategy. In years past,
these governments have demonstrated a capacity
to preserve border quiet when they found it pol-
itic to do so. That they have given their blessing
to terror warfare is because its aims serve their
own policies of frustrating any attempt at a mean-
ingful and lasting settlement.
The actions of the terrorist groups, emanating
as they do from across the borders, constitute a
flagrant violation of the UN cease-fire agree-
ments of June 1867. Israel has declared that It
Historians who are interested in the famous "Uganda Affair"—
considers itself bound by the cease fire only on
the offer of a territory made by Great Britain to Dr. Theodor Herzl
the basis of total reciprocity.
It will be noted that Lebanon was not as a haven for Jews, a matter that split the World Zionist Congress
listed here, yet it is an established fact that delegates in 1903—will fmd the issue fully accounted for in a remark-
most of the news quoting threats to Israel able book, "African Zion," by Prof. Robert G. Weisbord of the Univer-
emanated from Beirut, and now Israel re- sity of Rhode Island.

Prof. Weisbord's 'African Zion'
Reviews Historic Uganda Affair

leases data showing how the Lebanese gov-
ernment condoned the acts of terror.
The tragedy is not reduced by vengeance,
and condemnations do not serve their in-
tended purpose as long as there is uni-
lateral action in the international organiza-
tion. Israel reacts whenever there are in-
human intrusions into her territory or her
rights on the international arena. It is de-
plorable that what had happened should
have led to the drastic action that was taken
in Beirut, and the terrorist acts can not be
forgiven for having forced extreme counter-
actions-by those who must defend their very
life against threats of extermination.
Under the existing conditions, the Jews
as kinsmen of the Israelis now face challenges
as serious as those in May of 1967 when
Nasser and his cohorts were set upon end-
ing Israel's sovereignty. It is to be hoped
that the Christian friends of Israel will assert
themselves in opposition to UN unilateral-
ism and Arab terrorism. Meanwhile, Jews
everywhere must assert their rights to uphold
the hands of the fighters for freedom and
survival in Israel. The Arab terror is not
limited to attacks on Israel and Israelis. The
Jewish people has become a target of a new
type of anti-Semitism emanating from Sem-
ites. In the interest of protective action
against the re-emergence of a new form of
bigotry and of a movement to destroy Israel,
Jewry must stand united in defense of Israel
and in opposition to any claims to terror by
terrorists.

A Heyday for the News Speculators

It was a day of jubilatioh for the specu-
lative newscasters and journalists who sud-
denly emerged as prophets, authorities on
the Middle East, judges of human affairs.
So — one man spoke of an eye for an eye-
lash, forgetting that even an eyelash wasn't
touched in Israel's operation at Beirut while
the Lebanon-based El Fatah murdered in
Athens; another dared speak of halting funds
to assist migrants to Israel, most of whom
had come in the past two decades from Mos-
lem countries which not only expelled the
persecuted Jews but robbed them of their
possessions; others dared speak of sanctions
to be imposed upon a people seeking security
from "cousins" who are out to exterminate
them.
It was a shameful few days during which

!eta

"African Zion" (Herzl Press), based on extensive research in
London, Jerusalem and Nairobi, is the fascinating story of Britain's offer
of Uganda as a "colony" for Jews.

The scheme presented the greatest crisis which confronted
political Zionism as a young movement. At the same time it consti-
tuted the most significant of the numerous territorialist proposals
made by the Jews. The controversy over this offer helped to crystal-
lize the conflicting attitudes of Jews, and indeed of Zionists them-
selves, regarding the meaning and objectives of the Zionist move-
ment. Through this offer the British government recognized the

national existence of the Jews and laid the foundation for the Balfour
Declaration.

Thus, "African Zion" is an account of a crucial milestone along

the road to the establishment of the state of Israel.

Here's role in the negotiations for Uganda and in the Zionist
reactions is thus defined by Dr. Weisbord:

"To Herzl, Zionism meant a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but
he had made little headway in his campaign to return the Jews to their

ancestral home. Alternatively, he was eager to obtain concessions in
areas peripheral to Palestine. For this reason he had undertaken to
negotiate with the British government for El Arish in Sinai. When

these negotiations proved a failure, Herzl, acting through his Fxglish
representative, Leopold Greenberg, showed interest in East Africa.
During the entire time East Africa was under consideration by the

Zionists in 1903, 1904 and 1905, El Arish, with its historical and emo-
tional appeal and geographical proximity to the Promised Land, was
preferred. The less desirable East Africa was seized upon for both
diplomatic and humanitarian reasons. Herzl understood the significance
of obtaining recognition for his movement from the British government.

With an international power like Britain dealing with the Zionist
movement as the spokesman for world Jewry, Heel's concept of

Jewish nationhood stood closer than ever to realization. A Britain
the American ambassador to the United Na- committed to aid the Zionists would have to provide a substitute for
tions, humiliated by the vitriolic talk on the East Africa if the proffered territory there were unsuitable. Moreover,
international arena (quoting AP and UPI), deteriorating conditions in Russia, culminating in the Kishinev mas-
was impelled to speak out against threats
sacre, made the acquisition of a haven, a Nachtasy, an imperative. If
to destroy Israel.
And the Pope! What an inglorious chap- Palestine was unavailable, some other place would have to do. But
ter he added to the volume of inhuman at- throughout, Herzl never once lost sight of Palestine as the ultimate
tacks upon Israel! The Pope, who was not goal. Never once did he deviate from the Zionist ideology which he had
heard from while Jews were being murdered helped to fashion."
but who was so concerned with the steel that
Nevertheless the author of "African Zion" wonders how acceptance
was destroyed at Beirut!
of the British Uganda offer might have affected Jewish history and
The historian will have much to judge the
fate of the Six Million Jews who perished at the hands of the
about the days that concluded 1968, and he'll Nazis. He states that even Vladimir Jabotinsky, who voted at the Zionist
have a laugh at a silly reporter from Wash- Congress against the offer, wondered "how different things might have
ington for a Detroit daily newspaper who pre- been if a Jewish colony already existed in East Africa!" He wondered
dicted the doom of Israel without American 35 years later if it had been "just and wise to have rejected . . the
diplomatic aid. Poor boy! He has learned chance of salvation" offered by the British.
nothing from his Sunday school Bible les-
Thus, a most interesting historical incident is described brilliantly
sons about the PIdpSArWt1P11.1ty. of Israel; s in:African Zion"
by a noted scholar.

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