Detroit Jewry is confronted with the obligatory role of the WE as a functioning member of world Jewry, in the campaign that is now being launched for the Allied Jewish Campaign-Israel Emergency Fund. Fused in this drive is the obligation we share with Jews everywhere to take into account Israel's struggle for her very existence and our duty to provide for the social, educational and immigration-integration needs that are as burdensome as the military costs. The latter are borne by the Israelis who may by now be the most heavily taxed democratic community in the world. The former are functions related to the philanthropic for which we are primarily responsible since it is the world Jewish community that must provide for the rescue efforts in support of those who seek havens in Israel. In this drive we are also faced with the duties of providing for good schools, health and welfare and a multi- plicity of social services rendered in the Greater Detroit community and nationally in the American Jewish community. If the WE in this capacity is to be honorable it must be met fully. The domestic needs demand adherence to the duties to our own families and neighbors, to our children and to the future we plan for them. The dangers that face Israel must compel us to assist in building a stronger society that will be able to withstand the menace from neighbors who threaten the state's destruction, and our gifts must be doubled as a signal to our kinsmen that we shall never abandon them. A coupling of duties on both fronts should serve as an assurance that the 1970 communal drive will be the most successful in our history. EDITORIAL WE and our role in world Jewry JEWISH NEWS Defense of Life, Will to Live: Russian Role Compels Constant Israel Retaliation Michigan Weekly Editorials Page 4 Vol. LVI, No. 20 Review of Jewish News Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper — Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle - 27 Lebanon's New Frustrations • A British Labor Leader's Venom Abnegations of a Polish Jew Commentary Page 2 1751 5 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 — 356-8400 January 30, 1970 $7.00 Per Year; This Issue 20c Max M. Fisher Brings Message From Nixon: Israel to Get U.S. Arms 'as Need Arises' WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Richard M. Nixon Sunday indicated in a message to the National Emer- gency Conference on Peace in the Middle East that the United States would meet Israel's arms needs and gave re- assurance that this country would not attempt to "impose" a peace settlement. Nixon's message was read to the conference by Max M. Fisher, the Detroit Jewish leader and friend of the President. Nixon said "The U.S. is prepared to supply military equipment necessary to support the efforts of friendly governments, like Israel's, to defend the safety of their people. We would prefer restraint in the shipment of arms to this area. But we are maintaining a careful watch on the relative strength of the forces there, and we will not hesitate to provide arms to friendly states as the need arises." The President also stated: "I am aware of your deep concern that Israel may become increasingly isolated. This is not true as far as the United States is concerned. The United States stands by its friends. Israel is one of its friends. The United States is deeply engaged in trying to help the people of the Middle East find peace. In this effort, we are consulting fully with all of those most concerned. The United States believes that peace can be based only on agreement between the parties and that agreement can be achieved only through negotiations between them. We do not see any substitute for such negotiations if peace and security arrangements acceptable to the parties are to be worked out. The United States does not intend to negotiate the terms of peace. It will not im- pose the terms of peace. We believe a durable peace agreement is one that is not one-sided and is one that all sides have a vested interest in maintaining. The United Nations resolution of November 1967 described the prin- ciples of such a peace." President Nixon 'Who's a Jew' Decision by Israel Supreme Court Sharply Divides Jewry - JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel's chief rabbis Orthodox political leaders will seek legislation to overturn a majority ruling by Israel's Supreme Court last Friday which will allow Israelis to hold Jewish nationality without being Jewish by religion. The cabinet was holding a special session on the issue Thursday. Interior Minister Moshe Shapiro, who heads the Orthodox National Religious Party, said he would demand that the cabinet initiate legislation and to negate the court's ruling. The narrow 5-4 court decision was rendered the case of Lt. Commander Benjamin Shalit, an Israeli naval officer who sued the government to have his two children registered as Jewish although their Scottish born mother is non Jewish and pro- fesses no religion. According to Halakha, Jewish religious law, a person is Jewish only if born of a in - - Jewish mother or converted to Judaism according to Orthodox religious rites. This concept has been the basis of registering Israelis since the state was formed. The Supreme Court s decision ordering the registrar of popula- tions to ignore the halakhic injunctions in the Shalit case was seen by the Orthodox as an attempt to separate Jews into categories of religion and nation- ality and thereby create a category of Jews no longer subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of halak- hie rule. Israelis, whether religiously observant or not, are governed by halakha in matters of per- sonal status such as marriage and divorce. Halakha In Israel is administered exclusively by Orthodox rabbinical courts. The outcry against the Supreme Court's ruling came mainly from Orthodox circles Israel and abroad. The decision was denounced from the pulpits of most synagogues virtually all of which are Orthodox. The Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, Isser Yehuda Untermann, claimed that the court's ruling con- firmed the existence of "a destructive tendency" on the bench on the question of who is a Jew and was '!In basic and fundamental contradiction to Jewish religious law and our sacred Torah." The Sephardic chief rabbi, Itzhak Nissim, said the judgment was an attempt to distinguish between Jewish religion and nationality which are "indivisible." He claimed in (Continued on Page 36) - Max M. Fisher President Asked to Rescind State Department Proposals WASHINGTON (JTA)—White House officials said Monday that President Nixon was merely re- affirming existing policy in his message on arms and other matters issued Sunday. The mesage was sent to the "National Emergency Conference on Peace in the Middle East," an assembly of more than 1,000 Jewish leaders from throughout the nation. The portion of the message that pledged U.S. aid to Israel to maintain a balance has caused an angry protest from the Arab nations. White House spokesman Ronald Ziegler said that the President was reaffirming existing policy in stating that the United States would not hesitate to arm friendly states such as Israel if the need arose. Ziegler said the remarks were not linked with the new French-Libyan arms deal. White House sources said that U.S. policies were misunderstood and misinterpreted by Israel's supporters and that the President sent the message to reaffirm and clarify the American stand on Israel. Mr. Ziegler told the press at a briefing separate from the informal remarks of other officials that any additional arms sold to Israel would be on a "purchase basis" rather than in the form of a free grant. The spokesman was asked if the U.S. might also sell arms to the Arab states to maintain a balance. He replied that he was "not in a position to expand on our statement of yesterday." He referred to the President's message. Ziegler was asked if 'the President considered that an imbalance now existed. He replied that "We, of course, in reviewing the situation, will consider all aspects. But I wouldn't want to make a flat statement this afternoon." White House officials stressed that U.S. peace moves have created impressions regarded by the President as erroneous and that he issued the statement to correct any misunderstanding. The Nixon administration was urged Monday by the national conference of Jewish leaders to rescind the State Department's "specific proposals" for a Middle East settlement "so that Arab-Israeli negoti- ations which President Nixon has called for will indeed be undertaken without preconditions. A res- olution adopted by the conference praised the President's message. But the delegates, concluding their conference, criticized attempts by the U.S. and other big pow- ers to draft the framework for an Arab-Israeli settlement. Such efforts, their resolutions declared, "have in fact impeded progress toward a genuine peace." Another resolution condemned France's "anti- Israel and pro-Arab policy" and called on French President George Pompidou "to reverse it and lift the arms embargo against israel." By its massive arms shipments to Libya, France "joins the Soviet Union in surrendering any credibility as to her neutrality or objectivity as a participant in the Four Power talks," the conference declared. The resolution differentiated between the actions of the Pompidou regime and the "genuine sym- pathy and friendship extended by the French people to Israel in the The French past.' Dr. William A. Wexler, president of Bnai Brith and chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organ- Betrayal izations, the coalition that sponsored the conference, met Monday with French Ambassador Charles Lucet. A number of Jewish leaders participated in the meeting at the French Embassy. Conference dele- gates spent the day calling on members of Congress representing the 80 communities from which the delegates came. They met over 200 representatives and senators. Congressmen accorded the delegates "friendly receptions." In calling for withdrawal of the proposals submitted by the State IContinued on. Page 36) Detailed Stories on Page 28 Israel Strikes Hard at Enemy Military Bases Detailed Stories on Page 48