THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Assoclaton of Englah-Jewlsh Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Phone 356-8400
Subscription 67 a year. Foreign $8.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business M
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the ninth day of Sivan, 5730, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Nuns_ 4:21-7:89. Prophetical portion, Judges 13:2-25.
Candle lighting, Friday, June 12, 7:50 p.m.
VOL. LVII. No. 13
Page Four
June 12, 1970
Human Spirit: Justice for Israel
Congressional action aimed at preventing
escalation of the Soviet military policies in
the Middle East is based in large measure
upon the urgency of preventing the USSR
from assuming control of that area. Russian
policies, stemming from the days of Peter
the Great, are based upon aspirations to dom-
inate over vast areas, including the Mediter-
tranean. The two-headed Czarist Eagle indi-
cates the intention: one eagle looks to St.
Petersburg (later named Petrograd, Lenin-.
grad, Stalingrad) and the other to Constanti-
nople.
The Russian aim is clear, and the new
congressional approach is towards clarifying
the American stand.
But there is much more to the issue than
that. It is much more than a diplomatic move
or a matter of power politics. Involved here
is the need for historic justice, the urgency
of assuring protection for a community of
3,000.000 people whose fate hangs in the
balance in an era of threats to exterminate
an entire nation, in a critical time when the
non-Jewish population of encircled Israel is
in as much danger as the Israeli Jewish pop-
ulation.
Many misleading representations have
been made with respect to the Middle East.
Israel's democratic role in the Middle East
is of no consequence to- those who seek over-
whelming control of territories rich in oil.
The oil interests have begun to play a more
evident role to retain power amid impover-
ished Arab populations, and Israel could suf-
fer great tragedies unless there is an end to
the many threats which include rejection of
any form of recognition of Israel's right to
exist.
The element of basic justice, the right of
a small nation to survive, the historic legacy
of the Land of Israel for the People Israel—
these must be acknowledged without reserva-
tions.
There are 14 Arab states measuring mil-
lions of miles in territories and there is little
Israel with some 15,000 square miles that
include the occupied zones over which the
Israelis rule since June 1967. The Arabs be-
grudge Israel this bit of living space, they
deny an inherited right to the land, they seek
destruction as was evidenced in the most re-
cent attacks, mostly on children.
In a renewed spurt of letter-writing by
Arab propagandists in this country there is
new evidence of arrogance. Without remorse,
failing to admit the crime of premeditated
attacks upon schools and school buses, those
who write letters to American editors have
the lack of a human spark in their claims that
Israel is the aggressor. They remind the pub-
lic of the tragedy in which Egyptian children
lost their lives but they fail to admit that
Israel attacks military points and when chil-
dren are placed there the guilt is Egypt's.
Yet a local newspaper editorialized over such
a letter stating that "Israel is responsible,"
without even toenailing the brutal accusa-
tions.
The brave Arab terrorists apparently be-
lieve that by killing children they will event-
ually succeed in ending Israel's existence.
This has not worked and can not work. Is-
raeli children have lived for years in under-
ground shelters, in search of protection. It
is an established fact and many Americans
who have visited Israel know it. Yet, there
is a new form of silence, the humanitarian
voices are limited, Christian clergy have been
deluded by false propaganda. Therefore new
ways must be found to acquire a state of
peace.
What had happened at Beisan and Avivim
should serve added notice that a serious ef-
fort should be made to force the Arab rulers
to the peace table. No one with a sense of
reality will deal with terrorists. Nasser, Hus-
sein, Helou and other rulers in Arab lands
must be brought to a negotiating table to
talk peace—and they must do it by abandon-
ing the Khartoum threat of "no negotiations,
no peace."
What senators and congressmen did in
the past week should lead toward a renewed
realistic approach to the situation and to the
abandonment of policies by our media of
communications which have glorified the El
Fatah.
It is unfortunate that Israel can not even
protest to the Security Council. How can one
possibly address himself to a world body in
which the cards are stacked, where there are
no voices of compassion or justice, in which
the great powers—Russia, France, England—
are bedfellows with terrorists?
Public opinion must be aroused in this
country against the terror, in defense of the
right of the Jewish people to a place under
the sun. That place has international endorse-
ment. It must have international protection.
There is a new angle in the entire tragic
matter: one columnist last week had the gall
to state: "Jews in America are far more fanat-
ical and one-sided about the Mid-East conflict
than many Israelis are." What did this chap
expect? Silence from American Jews? In-,
difference? Even if the author of that is Jew-
ish, he deserves severest condemnation.
When a people's existence is threatened, there
is need for a friendly attitude and not con-
doning of genocide. And condoning murder
of a people or its individuals is shameful
There must be unification of forces to
protect Israel and to end murderous schemes.
Human obligations are to strive for peace and
not to glorify terrorism. This is the aim to'
be pursued, and we feel a sense of pride in
those members of both houses of Congress
who have shown the true humanitarian
American spirit in their stand on Israel's
behalf.
Gilner Volume Recapitulates
History of the Jewish Legion
A number of historical records of the Jewish Legion, the force that
fought under General Sir Edmund H. H. Allenby for the liberation of
Palestine from the Turks, have already been published. There was one
by the founder of the Legion, Vladimir Jabotinsky. A most valuable
supplementary volume has just been issued by Herzl Press. It is titled
"War and Hope—A History of the Jewish Legion," and was written by
an associate in the legion with Jabotinsky, Elias Gilner, who now
lives in Mount Vernon, N.Y.
Gilner's record of legion activities, the preliminary stages in its
creation, the people who were involved, the difficulties, the eventual
role, the military leaders—these and many other factors combine to
introduce an interesting work that serves as a supplement to modern
Zionist history.
The author had enlisted in the Jewish Legion under his original
name of Elias Ginsberg, before he had Hebraized it.
He knew Lt. Col. John Henry Paterson, commander of the
legion and the good friend of Jewry and Zionism, and his frequent
references to him and the account of his role emphasize the im-
portance of this additional work on the legion.
Furthermore, his association with Jabotinsky enabled him to gain
a deeper insight into the entire Jewish Legion motivation and the aims
for a Jewish statehood.
Actually, the Gilner story draws extensively upon historical data
so that his account is as much a chapter in Zionist history as it is a
review of military efforts during World War I.
Many personalities pass in review in the Gilner story, and
Zionists will be interested in the references not only to Jabotinsky
and the dynamic role he played in establishing the Jewish military
force for the redemption of Zion, but also many of the pioneers In
modern Zionism—Menahem Ussishkin, Dov Hos, Pintas Rutenberg,
Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, the Rothschilds and many
others.
The role of Sir Herbert Samuel, as first high commissioner for
Palestine, is reviewed here, and the men who came with him as British
officials are described in their various capacities. It is noteworthy that
Gilner takes into account the friendly attitude of Sir Wyndham Deedes,
the civil secretary of the British administration, and he notes the atti-
tude of others, the antagonists especially, who stood in the way of
achieving the goal prescribed in the Balfour Declaration.
Many human interests angles are touched upon in relation to the
enrollment in the Jewish Legion as well as the military unit's activities
in which David Ben-Gurion and Itzhak Ben-Zvi played important parts.
For instance, the activities of the Brainins—Joseph and Moses who
the most effective form of public relations enrolled as fighting members and their father, the eminent Hebraist,
media through which to reach our friends Reuben Brainin, who encouraged the formation of the legion. Joseph
and those who are misled by a lack of knowl- Brainin, who died Feb. 7, was an enrolling officer of the legion in this
edge of existing problems—that we should country and in Canada.
To End Prejudices—Let Truth Be Known
A major responsibility devolves upon Jew-
ish communities in free countries.
The attacks upon Israel, euphemistic re-
sort to the libertarian idea of Zionism as if it
were an evil specter, the re-emergence of the
vilest forms of anti-Semitism that is often
cloaked in Russian-created anti-Zionism, and
many other developing factors demand a
thorough knowledge of existing conditions in
order to be able to refute the libels with
which we are being showered.
All we ask from our adversaries is an
understanding of the truth—and to make that
possible it is vital that there should be a
knowledge of truth in our own ranks.
Therefore, there is the obligation to create
even be able to reach our enemies, the Rus-
sians, the anti-Semites, the Arabs whose
minds have been poisoned against us.
That is why the most pressing need today
is the establishment of the type of public
relations activities that will reach out to those
who need the facts, in order that we may best
be able to overcome the menacing situations
that confront us.
Our communities must not overlook such
vital planning in these serious hours of
menacing crises for Jewry and for Israel—
and the peace of the entire World. -
Many of the activities for the legion were conducted in Detroit and
Windsor.
There are interesting photographs in this book and a reproduction
of an issue of Palestine Weekly to indicate some of the British preju-
dices against Jews in Palestine. The British antagonisms are described
here to show the struggle the Zionist pioneers faced under the manda-
tory power.
While there was talk about a British covenant with Israel, there
was the defiling of pledges, and since the legion was to have played a
major role in redemption, the review of those experiences fits in well
into the Gilner book, which serves a good purpose in recalling the role
of the Jewish Legion in Palestine's liberation and in the advancement
of the ZioniSt'calde.