Purply Commentary
America's Confirmed Friendship for Israel
American aid for Israel is an inevitable process. The Nixon admin-
istration is delaying support for Israel militarily, but American public
opinion unquestionably is in favor of assistance to assure Israel's
security.
In his latest poll of American feelings on this serious issue, George
Gallup of the American Institute of Public Opinion reported the follow-
ing results:
Since 1967 a steady increase has been found in the proportion
of Americans who sympathize with neither side and who think the
United States should stay out of the Middle East conflict.
The 1,538 adults interviewed from Feb. 27 to March 2 were first
asked: Have you heard or read about the troubles between Israel
and the Arab nations in the Middle East?
The 86 per cent who replied in the affirmative were then asked:
In this trouble are your sympathies more with Israel or more with
the Arab states?
Here is the trend since June, 1967:
Sympathies with Arabs or Israelis?
(Based on informed group)
Feb. 1970 Feb. 1969 June 1967
Per cent Per cent Per cent
55
44
50
With Israel
5
5
3
With Arab states
25
28
32
Neither
15
17
21
No opinion
100'
100';
100';
The following table shows the trend since 1967, based on those
who indicate an awareness of the situation:
What should U.S. do about situation?
'(Based on informed group)
Feb. 1970 Feb. 1969 June 1967
Per cent Per cent Per cent
41
52
58
Stay out of conflict
16
13
13
Support Israel( non-military aid)
14
11
10
Negotiate for peace (unspecific)
11
2
2
Work through UN
5
1
1
Support Israel (send troops)
1
1
Support Arab nations
13
20
15
No opinion, other
100';
100` i
100' 1
*Less than one-half of one per cent.
Officials in both the White House and the State Department are
aware of these sentiments, in spite of the heavy load of anti-Israel
propaganda that has been unleashed in recent months. That is why we
entertain a sense of confidence that this country will not let Israel
down in time of crisis and may provide additional assistance even in
anticipation of crises which, we hope, will be obviated.
Nevertheless, there is the unending need to protect Israel also on
the various fronts which are affected by conflicting public relations
and through the communications media.
It is deplorable, for example, that notoriety constantly is being
given to the charges that Israel still continues to strive for more ter-
ritory. Thus, a very responsible foreign correspondent, John K. Cooley,
reporting from Beirut to the Christian Science Montitor, describes the
"squeeze on Lebanon" and the army clash with guerrillas and he gives
undue credulity to imaginary territorial aims by Israel. He stated in
American-Israel Friendship
Undiluted ... Arab Refugee
Figures Belie Propagandists
By Philip Mapam Member
Slomovitz Explains Position
all the time been recorded by UNRWA as refugees, including most
of their children born after 1949.
The second statistical falsification comes from the fact that in
East and West Jordan since 1951, deaths have almost never been
recorded. This fact had inducted UNRWA to a counter-measure.
Babies in Jordan received their milk ration, but UNRWA denies
food rations to children after their first baby year. However,
although now over 200,000 children are "on the waiting-list for
rations," because UNRWA assumes that during the 17 years since
1951 a similar number of deaths have remained unrecorded, their
full number is added to the statistical total and the unrecorded
deaths are not deducted. (During the last few years the waiting list
has even been declared as allegedly due to ration-ceiling for budget
reasons).
The other misleading fact in UNRWA'S statistical tables is that
the group of 70,000 skilled urban refugees who had been settled ex-
refugees since 1949 have been re-added in 1958 as "refugees re-
ceiving neither rations nor services." Their figure is now over
100,000.
Finally, the resettlement of refugees is almost completely
ignored with the exception of a few thousands settled with indivi-
dual financial assistance by UNRWA. Large numbers of genuine
refugees and their children who are counted for Jordan, Syria or
Lebanon are, in fact, re-settled in their host country or have
emigrated to other Arab states. The true number of unsettled
genuine refugees reaches hardly half a million.
It is an error to believe that it was the refugee problem which
prevented peace. If the Arab countries after the war of 1948.49
would have concluded peace with Israel all refugees would have
been entitled to return to their pre-1948 homes.
Yet the Arab countries—for political reasons, and the popular
hate against the Jewish State—denied peace, and most of them
have prevented any constructive settlement of refugees.
The world—with the principal exeception of Russia —came to
their assistance. UNRWA'S rations, clothing and health services
have provided for nearly one million of genuine and self-appointed
refugees a livelihood which, for the great majority of them, is at
least as good as their pre-1948 livelihood, and UNRWA'S education-
al service have brought to them enormous progress towards a
progressive future.
Unfortunately, the educational method has converted many of
them now into terrorists against Israel. A happier future depends on
the time needed to persuade the terrorist groups that the social
and economic up-building of the Arab parts of Palestine and the
adjoining Arab lands is a much more valuable task in peaceful
cooperation with Israel.
How to present these facts becomes the basic problem. It is much
easier to get an audience by crying that there is inhumanity towards
the refugees than by getting to the root of the problem and by getting
at the fact that the issue is soluble. But atrocity propaganda reaches
an audience much quicker than appeals to reason.
The Atrocity Propaganda Libels
Next to the refugee problem the atrocity stories are the most
deplorable in the entire discussion regarding Israel's role in the Middle
East. The libels have spread. Fantastic tales are circulated and some
of them find an echo in American newspapers, especially in the letters-
to-editors columns.
Responsible investigators have denied the atrocity tales. The stories
of brutalities by Israelis have been refuted. Arab tale-bearers have
distributed in vast numbers the shocking story by E. C. Hodgkin,
his report: "Most Lebanese are convinced Israel has the long-term aim
published in the London Times, about "repression" in Israel's newly-
of seizing south Lebanon up to the Litani River Valley. Some observers acquired territory. But another editor of the London Times, William
here believe Israel is holding off drastic action until President Nixon Rees, in a series of articles published after his study tour of Israel,
announces his delayed decision whether to sell Israel more jet air-
ridiculed atrocity charges and he states in one of his reports:
craft."
The predicated sentence to the view of an impending land-seizing
scheme refutes the very premise of such a scheme. Israel's urgent
appeals for American aid are dependent upon restraint and avoidance
of conflict if at all possible. All of Israel's requests are based on self-
protection and not on expansionism. If it were the latter, Israel could
lose American friendship, and this undoubtedly will be avoided at all
costs. And then there is the fact inherent in the Lebanese-Israeli desire
to avoid tensions rather than to increase them. That is why Lebanon's
government is seeking means of outlawing the guerrillas. Would Israel
be so foolish as to seek additional territory under such circumstances?
And doesn't common sense dictate that any additional territory Israel
could acquire won't only add to the nation's dangers? There is simply
no sense to fears that Israel is bent upon expansionism. If peace nego-
tiations could be inaugurated, the results would be withdrawal from
some areas not acquisition of more land.
The Clouded Refugee Issue
The Israelis claim that Arabs living on the west bank and in
the Gaza strip are better off than they were in 1967. That may be
true, but economic benefits do not remove the resentment at being
occupied. And the Israelis know that.
This Arab hatred also is to be found in literature. A passage
from "Return Ticket" (a book by Narsis Addin-Au-Nachashibi pub.
lished in 1962) reads:
"I shall see the hatred in the eyes of my son and your son. I
shall see how they take revenge ... I want them to be callous, to
be ruthless, to take revenge . . . their homeland is dear to them,
but revenge is dearer."
I did not find evidence of a similar hatred for the Arabs among
the Jews I met. Many Israelis are naturally and deeply interested
in Arab life and culture.
There is a recognition that Arab culture is different and exists
in its own right. Jews often express fear of coming to hate the
Arabs.
Most Israelis have, in the course of the war, lost people they
loved. The casualties have not been particularly heavy, but Israel
is a small country.
Of course, it is easier for the victors not to hate than for the
The most clouded of all the issues remains that of the Arab refu-
gees. A legend has developed about 1,300,000 refugees and the United
Nations Relief Works Administration has done all-too-little to diffuse
these claims. Dr. Walter Pinner, an Israeli authority on the subject,
vanquished.
has compiled facts which refute some of the false claims and which set
Would that there were a way of convincing many of the skeptical
forth the true condition relating to UNRWA and the refugee problem.
Here are the details he has outlined to show that there are less than that there is "no evidence of hatred" for Arabs among Israelis, that
there
is a desire for peace and that both peoples can, as they should,
half a million people in the classification of unsettled genuine refugees: live in harmony. But the
Arabs, even those who have seen evidence of
Very little had been written in Jewish papers about the Arab
such
desires
for a common humanity, won't admit it: because the first
refugees, and unfortunately the government of Israel has thought it
aim
is
Israel's
destruction
as advocated by their leaders who mislead
best to keep silent, in spite of the fact that the UNRWA satistics are
being built up on falsified reports by it staff in the host countries. them into a state of calamity. That's the tragedy of Israel, of the
UNRWA had ben established in order to assist the Arabs who
in 1948-49 bad lost their homes and livelihoods on the territory of
the new State of Israel and who are still "in need."
The total number of Arabs who left the territory of Israel had
been 539,000. At least 20 per cent of them, i.e. a minimum of 109,000
skilled urban people, never became "needy." Some 40,000 emi-
grated to countries far off, and 70,000 settled at once in the four
host countries and have never claimed assistance.
. The balance of 430,000 was distributed over the four host coun-
tries as follows:
Lebanon about 90,000; Syria about 78,000; Gaza about 106,000:
Jordan about 156,000.
Bpt of the Gaza district's pre-1948 resident population of about
117,500 not less than 90,000, and in West Jordan, of its 472,000 resi-
dents, about 300,000 people appointed themselves refugees and have
2—Friday, March 27, 1970
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Arabs, of the Middle East, of mankind.
of Israeli Doves
NEW YORK (JTA)—The posi-
tion of Israeli "doves" and who
they are was explained in a letter
published in the New York Times
recently by Simha Flapan, a lead-
ing member of Mapam (United
Workers Party) in Israel.
According to the writer, so-called
"doves' in Israel cover "a broad
spectrum of liberal and religious
professors, la b o r intellectuals,
Socialists of Mapam who, while
differing on details, contest the of-
ficial Israeli policy on essential
points."
"When it comes to security,"
Flapan wrote, "the doves no less
than the hawks, oppose unilateral
withdrawal without a peace settle-
ment or a peace settlement with-
out guarantees.
The doves are against a policy
of 'faits accomplis'—establishment
of Jewish civilian settlements in
the occupied areas—but they ap-
prove of military installations
necessary for war."
Flapan, who edits the English-
language monthly New Outlook in
Tel Aviv, said Israeli "doves"
demand clear and unequivocal
acceptance of the security coun-
cil's Nov. 22, 1967 resolution "im-
plemented as an indivisible whole"
but "oppose insistance on 'direct
negotiations' not because this is
morally wrong but because it is
unrealistic.
"They recognize the existence of
the Palestinian people and their
right to self-determination and
they demand immediate unilateral
steps by Israel for rehabilitation
of the Palestinian refuges."
A veteran Zionist leader in Lon-
don recently rapped one of Israel's
leading "hawks."
Dr. S. Levenberg, chairman cf
the Eretz Israel committee of the
board of deputies of British Jews
and a long time representative of
the Jewish agency in Europe, said
his committee was "astonished"
to read a statement by the Israeli
minister of transport, Gen. Ezer
Weizman, that what some people
called occupied territories was
part of "Zion" and must be re-
tained permanently by Israel.
The Zionist leader acknowledg-
ed that Gen. Weizman's statement
represented his personal opinion
but said it helped those who are
trying to confuse world opinion
about Israel's intentions.
Israeli Star, Amputee
in Attack, to Return Home
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Hanna Mer-
on, the Israeli stage star who was
seriously injured in the terrorist
attack at Munich airport, said that
she expected to be back in Israel
in four to six weeks.
One of her legs had to be am-
putated because of the injuries
suffered when terrorists opened
fire on a busload of El Al passen-
gers at the airport on Feb. 10.
She disclosed her plans in a tele-
phone interview over the army
broadcasting s e r v i c e. Officials
here said her voice sounded firm
and that she said her condition
was improving rapidly.
She said the turning point was
noted by physicians at a Munich
hospital recently when they decid-
ed no additional surgery was
needed and that Miss Meron's
wounds were healing satisfactorily.
Reorganization Viewed as a Spur to Zionist Movement
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Arye L. Pin- drive and the democratic elections
a responsibility for the fate of
cus, chairman of the Jewish to be held by the various Zionist
that nation.
Agency, predicted that the re- federations all over the world.
Under the plan outlined at the
organized Zionist Organization
He pointed to the establish- last Zionist Congress in Jerusalem,
will bring about a revitalization of
every
individual Jew will be able
the movement and a resumption of ment for the first time of a Zion- to join the Zionist movement and
its political activities which, he ist Federation In the United identify with Israel without neces-
States as an achievement reflect- sarily belonging to a particular
said, were abandoned when the
ing the stir in Zionist thinking. faction. He predicted that the
state of Israel was established.
Ile said the idea of broadening Zionist federations would ultimate-
At a meeting of Israeli news-
papers editors, he said that large-
the membership of J e wish ly become the representatives of
Agency executives would give Jewish groups in the various coun-
scale activity would be the out-
those helping Israel materially tries.
come of the new membership