Purely Commentary
. By Philip
Old Canards: Pocketbook Sensitivity and Loyalties
Jewish Traditional Duties ...Arab Fairy Tales Exposed Slomovitz
dieting loyalties but of obligations
to many things. American Jews
are as loyal as the editors and
It's a legitimate question: Why did we argue against anger and submit to insult even from a source we respect and admire.
commentators
who choose, to cri-
The Free Press has published splendid pro-Israel editorials, for
immediately display anger ourselves?
which we were grateful. It has uttered criticisms and expressed opin- ticize them. Because they' have
It is simple: We judged Pompidou as childishly peevish, but in our
acquired citizenship in this, gteat
case we resented the most serious insult that can possibly be hurled question
at ions to
which
an editor
is fully our
entitled.
But loyalties
no one with
has a
right
to land after
experiencing ',Many
our
loyalty:
We'll match
American
any
one!
persecutions
they are even better
u s.
There is an old chestnut about a Hearst editor who, upon receiving
There have been repeated anti-Semitic comments that the Jew can a call from a reader who was reported dead and who wanted a refrac- Americans in their appreciation
of their blessings. Yet they also
be hurt the most when it strikes his pocketbook. That's how those who tion of the obituary, replied:
aimed at boycotts spoke, and how antagonists from Russia and Moslem
"We can't run a correction, but we can accommodate you by pub- owe a loyalty to a heritage, •and
they owe a loyalty to mankind
countries instigated to hatred with their propaganda in Western coun- lishing your name in our birth column."
This yarn was applicable to the local instance for more than a and to justice for all.
tries.
Indeed, there are multiple loy-
How little they know the Jew—how much they have to learn that week until, finally, on March 12, there came a full apology!
alties — to country and its flag
there are conditions under which Jews are ready to sacrifice their T he
he Business of Multiple Loyalties
and the defense of both, to the
wealth, in defense of faith and honor. True: Jews have been pushed to
There were Frenchmen who used the dual allegiance charge as a heritage that has also given our
the wall by persecutions, they have been forced to the-baptismal font, in
weapon against Jews, in their defense of Georges Pompidou. Romain country basic spiritual values and
Russia today many Jews are forced to lend their names to attacks on Gary, a writer and a diplomat, who is Jewish, resented the attempt to
• • • - ;
to humanity.
Israel and Zionism. But that's when the auto-da-fe is resorted to.
rob Jews of "ideological free expression." The 71-year-old war hero
' 4 •
In the instance of the Pompidou visit and a newspaper's insult, we Gen. Pierre Koenig. said: "I am .a Roman Catholic. If the French Precarious Position
of Russian Jewry
were struck at a Most vulnerable point, in is matter on which we arc
Russian Jewry's position may
especially sensitive. Jewish- law commands loyalty to the land. of our government attacked the Pope, I would protest." He defended the
law Jewish position.
have worsened, as is indicated by
citizenship. There is a sacred admonition: Dina d-malkuta diva—the
On the other hand, there were Jews in . France who did not go the anti-Monist . and and-tired
the
land
is
your
law.
(That
does
not
deny.
us
the
right
to
criticism
.
.
,
.
.
of
with the defense .
along w
campaigni in the USSR intchvideh
and to aim for good conditions wherever we live—althugh we also I a
Nevertheless the - principle remains: it is not a question of con- "leading" J'ews have be& draft.
resent being called rude when we protest injustice).
We have said it time and again and repeat it: We respect the Free
Press as one of the very great American newspapers. But we do not
Blunders by Those Who Know Better . . . Old Chestnut
About Anger . • . Where We Are Hit the Severest ...
•
For Facts We Go to
Non-Jewish AP Writer
•
•
Exposing the Arab. Fairy Tales vis-a-vis Israel
• • •
The lie is used so frequently by the weavers of fantasies m the Middle East that every exp
The battle is for truth. Because realism regarding the existing situation mast be utilized in the hope that a fair-minded American com-
we insist on it. There are the sea-' mundywill react properly in the current crisis involving Israel_
far tales appeared receatly_Ap the New Leader. The ,anthorrIlay Allan, points to
sation seekers who are skeptical.
An expose of Ayala fairy.
Therefore we go to a non-Jewish the danger of eventual use .of nuclear weapons if the war snug sb tild`Welafebetw een the
authority for the truth.
and Israel. Whether or not he is correct, his views must be taken wit the utmost seriousness.
Roy Essoyan, Middle East
Ia the New Leader article entitled "Arab Fairy Tales," Ray Allan wrote:
correspondent for the Associated
LONDON—A fortnight ago in Cairo one of Egypt's King Farouk of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan,
Press, described the manner in
which news must be taken out of senior but least plausible propagandists put on a Nuri es-Said of Iraq, and-Azzam Pasha (the League's
Arab countries, with Beirut pro- grand show of indignation for the benefit of George first secretary-general and one of the promoters of
viding "The most practical listen- Brown, British Labor MP and former foreign secre- the 1948 refugee exodus from Israel)—would all have
ing post." Essoyan wrote a long tary, who was touring the Near East. felt at home there.
Meanwhile, the Arab-Israel dispute smolders on.
"The Israelis are worse than the Nazis. Three
explanatory story of the difficulty
of acquiring truth and of getting times they have committed aggression against us The hate-propaganda and hyperbole continue; envoys
and arms salesmen of the "big" four come and go;
stories out of the Arab lands, and
and nobody seems to be looking at the core of the
a few basic paragraphs could
Brown blinked. He probably knew that the man
problem—Israel's security.
serve as a guideline for some ! talking to him was strongly pro-Nazi during World
editors:
ISrael's security? This may sound absurd when
ar II. Later, a British official concerned with
"Most
major
Arab news breaks_,
W
the
coups,
assassinations,
execu- ! arrangements
for his tour commented: "One doesn't - one recalls how Israel, not yet organized as a state,
halted
three invading armies in 1948, and how it
mind their telling their own people fairy stories; but
tions and Arab-Israeli battles that • it's rather disconcerting when they talk to us as if
accepted Abdel Nasser's challenge, and defeated
provide our daily news fare —. they think we're peasants."
him, in 1967. Arab, Soviet and French officials argue
are first announced over govern- 1
that the most urgent issues are the return of the
In private conversation with friends they have no
meat radio stations, which are
Arabs' lost territory and the readmission of refugees.
easily monitored in Beirut. The need to hoodwink, informed Arabs frankly blame the
But the Arabs outnumber the Israelis 50-1; and there
official communiques are seldom Arab League and British mischief-makers for the
is
only one small Israel, whereas the Arabs possess
prompt or impartial but they are 1948 Arab-Israeli War; and they say Colonel Gamal
15 sovereign states. The loss of the Sinai desert dis-
usually all you'll get fom the Arab Abdel Nasser was temporarily majnoon (out of his
placed very few Egyptians and means little eco-
side . .. mind) when he massed troops in Sinai and challenged
nomically to Egypt; the loss of territory a quarter
"AP's Dennis Neeld, in Baghdad Israel to fight in 1967. Only during the Suez crisis of
of the size of Sinai would mean the end of Israel.
for one of their mass executions 1956, they concede, was Egypt the victim of clear-cut
Israelis still remember gleeful Cairo radio propa-
aggression—by France and Britain as well as Israel.
last year, flew to Cairo with his
ganda
promising extermination when Nasser massed
They are angry about the rebirth of Israel, but re-
copy, phoned it from the airport
his troops in Sinai in May 1967. -
signed to it; and they don't really believe Israel is
to the AP bureau there for protec-
expansionist—for the obvious reason that, if it were,
Until the Israelis feel:that their security is some-
tive relay, caught the next plane
how assured they will obviously be unwilling to hand
the Jews would soon be outnumbered.
to Beirut and filed the story all
Unfortunately, informed Arabs are only a minor-
back the buffer zones they have captured, to take
over again from Beirut. The
ity. The majority are still under the spell of their
the risk of having Egypt reimpose its blockade of
Beirut copy, filed eight hours after
rulers' wild tales, and their rulers seem to be as
the Gulf of Aqaba and Suez, to expose New Jerusa-
Neeld left Baghdad, reached Lon-
ever
on
fanciful
propaganda.
If
there
lem
once again to Jordanian bombardmeht and snip-
don several hours before the dependent as ,
was no Israel, it would hive to be invented—by the
ing, or to readmit Arabs whp might turn out to be
stories filed from Baghdad, or the
Arab governments and - also by all those ostensibly
saboteurs or guerrillas. Resolve their basic security
protective copy relayed via Cairo.
problem, though, and the transfer of territory, bor-
"Freedom of the press is a con- pro-Arab organizations and "lobbies" which, financed
der adjustments, and refugee repatriation or com-
by
oil
interests
and
Arab,
Soviet,
British,
French
and
cept foreign to the Arab world.
pensation will be immediately feasible.
The Arabs regard the press and other secret services, exist primarily to inflate Arab-
radio as propaganda branches of Israeli differences and throw dust in Arab eyes.
How resolve it? With a big power guarantee?
the government. Outside of Leba- Arab governments and others have exploited the
Russia would almost certainly refuse to give one and
non, all Arab radio and television Zionist bogey for a quarter of a century in order to
would not be trusted by the Israelis if it did. The
stations are owned by the govern- divert and frustrate reformist and democratic move-
United States, eager to disengage from Vietnam, is
ment. Most newspapers are gov- ments; and they have, on the whole, been fairly
unlikely to accept any fresh military commitments
ernment-owned too, and thpse that successful. But for the diversion of Arab energy
in Asia.
are privately-owned operate under against Israel, it is unlikely that the kingdoms of
A medium power guarantee? Britain would be
strict government licenses that Jordan and Saudi Arabia would have survived—or
disinclined to act: Its officials admit they are too
are lifted if the paper publishes Kuwait, or the smaller east Arabian sheikdoms and
scared of what the Sheikh of Kuwait (most of whose
anything considered objectionable. emirates that Britain is still, after 25 years of failure
oil income is banked and invested in London) could
"Censorship extends to photos as and despite the lessons of Aden, trying to squeeze
do to the pound sterling. France would be even less
well as news. Pictures of troops, into a manageable federation. But for the dispute
reliable: It is eagerly boosting its arms exports to
or even soldiers in the streets, with Israel, Lebanon's estimable Christian and Druze
the Arabs and trying to scare off Britain, for em-
are prohibited. In Lebanon, no minorities would be as hard-pressed as the Egyptian
barrassments suffered in the '40s, by securing foot-
photo of an army tank may be Copts and the Iraqi Kurds; the oil map of the region
holds in the countries that were, once British fiefs.
transmitted abroad, especially if would undoubtedly be different; and the British,
The Scandinavians Might help, but one of the world's
it shows the tank treads. It might Soviet and French armaments industries would have
tragedies is that there are not enough of them to
suggest that the army is running fewer clients. ' .
go around. -
Not even Israel, however, could save the recent
things in this free and democratic
Might the United Nations Organization or the
country. If you crop out the treads Rabat summit conference of Arab rulers. The Saudi
Afro-Asian "Third World" be willing to underwrite
the censor will sometimes clear kingdom's intervention in the civil war in Yemen, its
the existence of a small beleaguered people? Anyone
frontier
dispute
with
the
new
People's
Republic
of
the photo for transmission.
who thinks they might should ask the Kurds of Iraq,
"The Lebanese censor considers South Yemen (formerly the British protectorate of
the Negroes of the Sudan, or the Ibos of Nigeria, what
'army' a bad word. Also 'guer- Aden and southern Arabia), "ideological" quarrels
they
think of the UN and the "Third World." Many
rillas.' Until a few months ago, between the rival Baathist oligarchies of Syria and
people once hoped that the new Afro-Asian nations—
officially, there were no guerrillas Iraq, Baathist intrigues in Jordan, Arab guerrilla
guided
by men like Nehru, uncorrupted by wealth
in Lebanon - . . activity in Lebanon, the poorer Arab states' griev-
and power—might get the world out of the big power
"Ministers and other government ances against wealthy Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,
rut and set new international standards of morality;
officials are usually either unavail- Kuwait's alleged subservience to Britain, and Saudi
in reality, too many Afro-Asian governments have
able or uncommunicative. Gov- ties with America, provoked the sharpest exchanges.
inherited
not only the crazy frontiers but the callous-
ernment press officers will load In addition, Egyptian officials accused the sup-
ness of their imperial overlords.
you with stacks of propaganda porters of the Palestinian guerrilla leader Yasser
Still, a guarantee will have to come from some-
booklets and leaflets but most Arafat of trying to upstage Abdel Naser; Jordanian
where. If it does not come from outside the region
anything else you need from them officials dropped hints that, as they see it, the Rus-
it
will
be made in Israel—and it will almost certainly
sians
and
French
are
eager
to
boost
Yasser
Arafat
is liable to encounter insuperable
be nuclear: The day a nuclear factor is introduced
with a view to ousting King Hussein and effacing
obstacles.
into the Near Eastern equation will be a grim one
"And some of us feel the Arab British and American influence in Amman ... Rabat
for both Arabs and Israelis. And what a self-right-
side of the story needs to be told. was, in short, a binge in the ! best traditions of the
eous howl there will be from the merchants of death.
Arab League. The Arab leaders of 20 years ago—
Arab barriers notwithstanding."
Many Jews in Russia hand begun
to display courage in the* , de-
mands for exit visas to leein the
country and to .settle in Tara& Ap-
parently theassertions of identifi-
cation with Jewry are growing,
else there , would not have been this
pressure upon writers and zebus.
Usti to join an anti-Zionist eail
paign.
But the voice of American Jewry
is not being silenced. Russian
manipulations to harm Israel and
to spread the anti-Semitic _Venom
ConimuniSts have inherited' Vont
Czarism are strengthening: Wither
than harming the forces that are
condemning prejudices.
There are many Russian Jews
who are being coerced to condemn
Israel and to go along with the
Kremlin. But the 52 noted Jewish
personalities who signed the con-
demnations and the anti-Israel
letters published in Pravda were
counteracted by a statement'
by 37 Jews who said - that
sued by
thousands of Russian Jews .
to leave the USSR. . . ,
It is the courage of those who
refuse to go along With the pre-
judices that emerges.. as most .
remarkable in the present critical
time for Russian Jewry. And they
indicate the -feelings atn6di the
silenced in. Russia. . II
A New Daniel
Come to Judgment?
Free Press Editor
Reveals His Attitude
March 6, 1970
Mr. Philip Slomovitz
Editor and Publisher
The Jewish News
17515 W. 9 Mile Rd.
Southfield, Mich. 48075
,f•
Dear Mr. Siomoviti:
After conversations with . . Rabbi
Halpern, Judge Gubow andiethers,
I bad-no hesitation abouNiUsIdng
the .ClariligatiOn,
was
printedd . in the Friday,
Free Press. The difficulty'imine,
think, -because you w
political loyalties while It
ing aboin injecting enniti
into thg political arena
Along tlmt same
Sloniovils, your editorial
ary' was an even
rage to az sense
tend
fairlilay. You 6137 that
frees". the "Arab was
us
fproinizient —platf •
••
is ibsolutely untrue and.
read the Free Press regularly, you
know it is untrue. It is singularly
interesting further, that you, eall
me "unqualified to judge • the
news," when your own. venomous
prejudices poison everything
you
write on the subject • -
You, further suggest that your
readers should let the Free Press
know of their resentment. If you
think that pressure front Yott Will
force U6 to deny our relidefi their
right to their say in our( letters
column, please disabuse( 'yburselL
Sincerely,
t
Mark Ethridge Jr.,
Editor, Detroit Free Press
TIE
TIE DETROIT JEWISH
27-Friday;;Orsho 13k. 1971P
NEM
- I