Purely Commentary
Inerasable Hope for Redemption
Joseph Alsop is an honorable man. He would not
hurt: his aim, as a distinguished columnist, is to
help. Yet ...
Many distinguished newspapermen of our time
are both honorable and admirable people. They aim
to assist in elevating the standards of the generation
of which they are a part, and most of them are
libertarians. Yet—
There will be much to shock us, as there has
already been very much to upset us. But in the
search for reality one wonders why some good men
go off on a tangent.
Israel is the result of an international guarantee.
It began with the Balfour Declaration. It continued
in the League of Nations. It developed out of the
sweat and blood of people who established colonies
in a neglected land and undertook again to make it
"blossom like a rose." The process continued in the
United Nations, the nation's recognition on an inter-
national scale arose from a participation plan that
was duly adopted by the UN, the small nation was
welcomed as a member of the UN, and since then
there was the struggle.
The struggle is another matter, endlessly dis-
cussed, already touched upon, certain to be account-
ed for time and time and time again. At the moment
we deal with a most astonishing statement by that
honorable and good man, Joseph Alsop.
He is such a realist, yet in a most recent column
in which he dealt with Israel dependency upon Am-
erican help. he introduced a perscnal note. This is
what he wrote in part:
*
The danger in the Middle East is visibly, al-
most continuously increasing. It is therefore time
for some plain speaking about the relations be-
tween embattled Israel and this country's large,
immensely valuable minority of Americans of
Jewish descent.
The subject is so delicate that a personal word
may perhaps be permissible. To begin with, this
reporter supported the late James V. Forrestal,
when he futilely argued against President Tru-
man's Middle Eastern policy.
The immediate question was whether the United
States should press for admission of another
100,000 Jews to Palestine. But the real question
was whether to support the establishment of an
independent Israeli state. Hard American interests
dictated advocacy of opening America's own gates,
instead of the gates of Palestine, to 500,000 Jews or
even more.
America would have gained, first of all, by a
large increase in one of the elements in the Ameri-
can mixture that has contributed splendidly to the
success of the whole.
Secondly, America would have avoided the loss
of all real leverage in the Arab states which has
resulted from the American role as Israel's chief
sponsor on the word stage.
If it becomes necessary to turn back the pages of
history and to study anew the rights of the people
Israel to Eretz Israel, we are grateful to Joseph
Alsop for having resorted to a personal note that
indicates that he appreciated the merits of Jewish
rights, aspirations, hopes, dreams, prayers, inde-
structible links with Israel as little back in pre-Israel
statehood days as he does now. Now, he is influenced
by the negations, the prejudices, the attitudes we
often describe as self-hatred that stem from the
ranks of the New Leftists. His new heroes or cer-
tainly the men of authority are L F. Stone and Prof.
Noam Chomsky. But there is still the Bible, Proph-
ecy, history, prayer, faith, 2,000 years of aspirations
that can not be erased.
Great Newspaper's Editor Blunders as Tool of Lie
and Infamy . . Need for Career Men in Service
of Jewry . .. Just Claim for Educational Surveys
Alsop compels us to recapitulate historic facts,
to call attention to the rights that are Israel's. He
leads us to call attention to the covenant, to the
15th chapter of Genesis: "Unto thy seed have
given this land ..."
Through the ages, uninterruptedly, without cessa-
lion, Jews everywhere dreamed and hoped for the
return. And through the ages Jews continue to live
in what was Palestine. They were in Jerusalem and
in Safed and in Tiberias and in Ashkelon and in
Acre.
Even in the days of horror under the Crusaders,
there were Jews in Jerusalem and in many other
towns in Palestine, in Eretz Israel.
While Jews dreamed for redemption, Christians
what is needed is the seed of fire.
The heritage of Israel in the pulses
of millions; it lives in their veins
as a power without understanding,
like the morning exaltation of
herds; it is the inborn half of
memory, moving as in a dream
among writings on the walls, which
it sees dimly but can not divide
into speech. Let the torch of vis-
ible community be lit! Let the rea-
son of Israel disclose itself in a
great outward deed, and let there
be another great migration, an-
other choosing of Israel to be a
nationality whose members may
still stretch to the ends of the
earth, even as the sons of England
and Germany, whom enterprise
carries afar, but who still have a
national hearth and a tribunal of
national opinion. Will any say 'It
cannot be'? Baruch Spinoza had
2 Friday, February 20, 1970
—
Outrageous Injury Committed by Free Press:
Publication of Lies Discredits Newspaper
An editor's role can be debated. He can argue that he must en-
courage presentation of news on an impartial basis and to have the
right to interpret the news his way. It is yet to be decided how an
editor is to judge missiles submitted to him by readers.
When a letter is filled with lies, venom, incitement to riot and to
hatred, it is questionable whether an editor who publishes such poison-
ous material used his good judgment.
The Free Press selector of a letter from an Arab who was given
an unusually prominent platform committed not only an error in judg-
ment, but a great disservice to the community and to the truth. He has
harmed the Jewish people, has maligned Israel, has encouraged spread
of false propaganda, and our hope is that not Jews but Christians will
call the liar to task and will let the Free Press know the resentment of
who loved the Bible and recognized Prophecy urged truth-seeking people.
redemption. And Jewish souls were stirred when
If there were an iota of truth in the Arab's letter, we might have
Lord (George Gordon) Byron, 175 years ago, wrote
seen reason for its publication. But there was not a single item in it
in his "Hebrew Melodies:"
of hat-
that come from the ranks
"The wild dove bath her nest, the fox his cave, that did not stem from the falsehoods peace
in the Middle East.
Mankind their country, Israel but the grave." ers who undermine any attempt at
Arabs
are
employed in Israel government
Tens of thousands of
Therefore Israel sought a return to country and
an end to homelessness. Out of it emerged the Zion- projects and are receiving four times the pay they earned under Hus-
ist movement as a political factor, but as a spiritual sein. A million Arabs in Israel's newly occupied territories travel free-
idea there was nothing new to create; through the ly in Israel, live amicably with Israelis, conduct their businesses and
have their children study in schools financed by Jews. The Red Cross
ages Jews prayed, three times daily,
"Vetekhezena eineinu b'shuvkha l'Tzion b'rak- has officially denied charges of mistreatment of Arabs by Jews.
THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE INCIDENT OF ABUSE OF HUMAN
hamim . . . May our eyes behold a return into
Zion with mercy .. ."
It was one of scores upon scores of prayers and
declarations and avowals that dispersion must end
for the homeless, that homelessness must end, and
those who had their free homes, like we, in the
United States, labored for freedom in the American
spirit. It was our determination that those who have
freedom must help provide it for their fellow men.
Therefore, no matter what the recollections of
Joseph Alsop, regardless how this columnist, for
whom we have nothing but respect, embraces Jews
who encourage destruction and are among the spirit-
ual assassins in an hour of crisis for Israel and the
Jewish people, it would have been useless to hope
for an end to the Zionist dream. If he had succeeded
—as he couldn't!—in pre-Israel stateh000d days to
have an open door for 500,000 Jews in the United
States, there still would be a Zionist ideal. That is
ineradicable. A people's hopes are not that easily
destroyed and Prophecy is for the ages not for an
era during Nazism alone to be rejected by an Alsop-
Stone-Chomsky combine in alliance with Nasser,
RIGHTS BY JEWS IN ISRAEL IN THEIR RELATIONS WITH THE
ARABS SINCE THE JUNE 1967 WAR.
Not a single honorable foreign correspondent, even from the Soviet
Union whose pro-Arab prejudices are well known, has ever controverted
this fact!
The Free Press editor who swallowed hook, line and sinker in
accepting the poisonous lies from a hat-monger must be considered
unqualified to judge the news.
Especially ugly in the Free Press piece is the contention that
Israelis defiled an American's treasured passport. The record is clear
as to who insults America. The Arab record of abuse is well known.
Yet an editor accepted a defilement of good taste from a writer who
couldn't prove he was in Israel at the time stated and permitted his
paper to sing vulgarly into the gutter !
It's bad enough that the Free Press church editor came back
from Israel with an attitude that puzzles, because he did not look for
news and facts and developments in that country as well as in Jordan
but was guided by an anti-Semitic article from the London Times. What
the Free Press did with the Arab letter added insult to injury.
We are compelled to criticize an otherwise great newspaper and
we do it with deep regret. The injury the Free Press has just done to
the
entire Jewish people is unatonable. To permit an outrageous pack
Hussein, et al.
We have indicated: Jews are not alone as Zionists. of lies to get a platform is inexcusable because it is often irreparable.
We had and have our Christian adherents. We had The Free Press staff has cause to be ashamed of what was committed
18, 1970.
the George Eliot plea in Daniel Deronda. There was in the issue of Wednesday, Feb.
•
•
•
the historic memorial addressed to President Ben-
jamin Harrison and Secretary of State James G. Milton Friedman's Jornalistic Career
Blaine in 1891, and again to President Woodrow
Milton Friedman has left the JTA services and we shall have a
Wilson in 1916, by the Rev. William Blackstone, a new Washington and White House correspondent. The mills will keep
revered Christian clergyman.
grinding and our readers will be well protected with basic information
The Blackstone Memorial's 413 signers repre- about occurrences in our nation's capital. But we shall miss the; byline.
sented a veritable American Who's Who. Con- from Washington carrying the Friedman name because he lies ren-
gressman William McKinley, who soon thereafter
dered such distinct service to Jewry with his'•cover-
became President of the United States, Chief his-
age of events since the Presidency of Harry S. Tru-
tice Melville W. Fuller of the United States Su.
man, the congressional acts, court decisions, all
preme Court, Speaker of the House Thomas B.
news of specific interest to American Jews on the
Reed all endorsed the appeal for the restoration of
national level.
the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.
Friedman has entered government service and-
That's how it has been through the ages. Is it now
we are confident of his success in the new assign-
to be said, even if in the name of Stone, Chomsky,
ments. Yet it is a sense of deep regret that we'
et al, in a dead idea resurrected by Joseph Alsop,
heard of his resignation. There is great need for'
that Zionism should never have been, that Israel is
interested and dedicated young men in Jewish activi-
an error, that Jews had no dreams or aspirations or
ties—especially in Jewish journalism. There is need
had no right to them?
for career men in Jewish social service, in the rabbinate, in education.
Behold—the return to Zion is real, and the return We are experiencing great difficulty interesting young people to enter
to Zionism no doubt is the means of negating what- the diminishing teaching profession, in joining the staffs of Jewish
ever is destructive in the panic that has engulfed newspapers, in becoming active in the community needs for which
deluded men!
we need the best available personnel.
So—we shall miss Milton Friedman, and in bidding him well in his
new position with our government, we hope his departure from our
craft will not deter the ablest young people to begin in tasks where
Christian Declarations on Zionism
From "Daniel Deronda" by
George Eliot, Written in
1776: From the speech of
Mordecai to Deronda
"What is needed is the leaven—
By Philip
Slomovitz
not a faithful Jewish heart, though
he had sucked the life of his in-
tellect at the breasts of Jewish
tradition. He laid bare his father's
nakedness and said, 'They who
scorn him have the higher wis-
dom.' Yet Baruch Spinoza con-
fessed, he saw not why Israel
should not again be a chosen na-
tion. Who says that the history
and literature of our race are
dead? Are they not as living as the
history and literature of Greece
and Rome, which have inspired
revolutions, enkindled the thought
of Europe, and made the unright-
eous powers tremble? These were
an inheritance dug from the tomb.
Ours is an inheritance that has
never ceased to quiver in millions
of human frames."
From the Blackstone Memo-
rial of Rev. Williiam Blackstone
signed by 413 distinguished
American Christians and sent to
President Benjamin Harrison and
Secretary of State James G.
Blaine, in 1891, and repeated as
a followup memorandum to Pres-
ident Woodrow Wilson by the
Rev. Blackstone in 1916.
"Why not give Palestine back
Friedman
leaves off.
•
•
How About the Jewish Careers?
•
We just can't quit on the subject at this point. If our young people
will not make careers of jobs that provide an opportunity for service
,
to Jewry, then we will be great trouble. If young Jews will not train
for social services, for journalistic pursuits, for the rabbinate, then
to them again?
American Jewry especially will become greatly impoverished.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has begun a program of intern:
"According to God's distribution
of nations, it is their home—an ships for budding journalists. It is to be hoped that this plan of JTA
President
Robert Arnow will bring good results. But it will require
inalienable possession from which
they were expelled by force. Under
their cultivation it was a remark-
ably fruitful land, sustaining mil-
lions of Israelites, who industri-
ously tilled its hillsides and val-
leys. They were agriculturists and
producers as well as a nation of
great commercial importance—the
center of civilization and religion.
"Why shall not the powers which
under the treaty of Berlin in 1878,
gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians
and Servia to the Servians now
give Palestine back to the Jews?
These provinces, as well as Ro-
mania, Montenegro and Greece
were wrested from the Turks and
given to their natural owners. Does
not Palestine as rightfully belong
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS to the Jews?"
prodding, just as encouragement to the young people to enter all Jew-
ish fields of endeavor will need constant urging and perhaps pleading.
A matter of special concern that has more frequently been
referred to is the shortage of Jewish teachers and the failure of atm•
paigns to induce young Jews to pursue teaching in Jewish schools
as their profession. The Detroit teachers have for some time urged
the selection of an impartial study commission to probe the existing
situation and to seek a solution to the problem which seems to weaken
our entire educational structure. If so minor a proposal is being
shunned it does not speak well for the forces in charge of our schools
whence must come the greatest concern for the future of Jewish
communal needs.
Indeed, there is need for probing our entire structure to assure
continuity of Jewish endeavors without handicaps. On the fund-raising
level we gain strength thanks to Israel. We must establish criteria
that will assure meritorious accomplishments and the sincerest interest
of all our people as a means of giving strength to the ideals that link
Jews with Jewry and community. A major need is in the ranks of
youth. If we are to gain their loyalties we must provide them with
(Continued on Page 48)