Purely Commentary
By Philip
Slomovitz
Peace Is So Near and Yet So Far .. . and the
Egyptians and the Palestinians Have It in
Their Power to Bring Their People to Peace
Some Potent Questions to Egyptians, Applicable to Palestinians
Israel Students of Middle East Affairs has addressed Six Questions to an Egyptian
Patriot. The group states in its introductory explanatory note:
"Of all the Arab societies in conflict with us, there are two for whom we are
most concerned: the Palestinians and the Egyptians. The Palestinians, because they are
our closest neighbors and because one day their society and ours will have to co-
exist peacefully side by side. The Egyptians, because we have always felt some kind
of Instinctive sympathy towards them. We like their humaneness, their sense of humor,
their devotion to their families. And wesympathize with their tragic sense about the
fate of their country."
Then followed the questions, accompanied by the following extensive elaborations:
We see a true Egyptian patriot as a man of the in the Sinai? Do you think that a nation of 30,000,-
people, with a broad sad smile, an open manner 000 fighting a nation of 2,500,000, saves its honor
and a quiet pride. To him we dedicate the questions by asking a big power to fight for It? Is there
in this bulletin, with sympathy, and with the hope any difference between King Farouk who in 1948
that perhaps one day, somehow, we shall receive asked the British Royal Air Force to help him
against Israel and President Nasser who in 1970
an answer,
asks the Soviet Air Force to help him? Do you
WHO WANTS TO LIVE IN PEACE?
1. We believe that your profoundest wish is to really think that bringing Russian imperialism into
live in peace and to be allowed to live your life as Egypt was a price worth paying for the refusal to
you choose. Are you willing to believe that we, let Israeli society live its life in peace and in agree-
ment with its neighbors?
Israelis, have exactly the same wish?
DOES EGYPT HELP SOLVE THE PALESTINIAN
WHO THREATENS WHOM?
2. We believe that what is most important to PROBLEM?
5. We in Israel are willing to reach an agree-
you, as a patriot, is that the independence and soy-
ereignty of Egypt should be preserved. Are you ment with Palestinian society on the basis of the
willing is believe that we L3raelis recognize, respect, independence of both societies and their peaceful
and sympathize with the wish of your people to coexistence side by side. Do you think (like Presi-
retain their independence and sovereignty? Let us dent Boumedienne of Algeria) that the conflict be-
then ask you: Are you willing to recognize our in - tween Palestinians and Israelis concerns Palestinians
dependence and sovereignty? Or do you wish ns and Israelis alone, and is no business of other peo-
to withdraw from Sinai only so that your army and ple? Or do you think (like President Abdel Nasser)
air force will be nearer to our homes? that the Palestinian problem is the responsibility of
WHO GAINS BY KEEPING THE CANAL CLOSED? EgYpt, and that the Palestinians should not be al-
3. After the war of June 1967, it was proposed lowed to conduct any negotiation with Israel? Do
to open the Sues Canal. Israel agreed on condition you know that several prominent Palestinians have
that Israeli ships should be allowed to pass through asked Nasser's permission to conduct negotiations
the canal. If Egypt had then agreed, the canal with Israel— and that he refused to give them such
would by new have been open for more than two .a permission?
years. The canal front would be quiet, or perhaps IF YOU ARE NOT AFRAID TO FIGHT US, WHY
would have disappeared altogether. The canal towns ARE YOU AFRAID TO TALK TO US?
6. Lastly, we wish to ask a plain question.
would be alive and economically active. Do you think
that what Egypt lost by keeping the canal closed to Nasser says that to negotiate with Israel is to sur-
all salpplag is offset by what she has gained? And render. May we ask, in all politeness, surrender
what? If Nasser starts negotiations and later leaves
what has she gained?
them because results are unsatisfactory—is that
WHO IS SERVED BY RUSSIAN IMPERIALJM?
4. Having chosen the path of war instead of surrender? If Nasser gains by negotiations the re-
the path of conciliation and peace, Nasser declared turn of the Sinai Peninsula, is that surrender? If
upon us the War of Attrition. The War of Attrition Nasser helps by negotiations to solve the Palestinian
was won neither by Israel nor by Egypt. It was won problem, is that surrender? If you are not afraid
by Russia. Do you think that the presence of Russian to fight us, why are you so afraid to talk to us?
troops in Cairo and Alexandria is less shameful to If you are men enough to fight and die, are you
Egyptian beam than the presence of Israeli troops men enough to talk and live?
There is so much logic to these questions !And the queries propose peace, tranquility,
cooperation, the raising of human standards—the abnegation of war !
Will the antagonists of Israel listen to reason? Can these messages be brought to
the enemies of Israel—and to those who, outside the Middle East orbit, fail to understand
the basic problems involved in a situation that compels Israel to fight•for its very life (and
Israel's kinsmen to support the state in its dire need!) while enemy neighbors are determined
to destroy an entire people? When will common sense begin to influence Arab minds?
War and Peace . . . Men and Monkeys
During the period of horror when Jordanians killed Jordanians
and Arabs failed to appreciate the value of life, there were some among
the guerrillas who said the reason they fought Hussein's army is be-
cause they thought they were fighting Israelis.
Those who are supposed to be "in the image of God" keep failing
in their judgment of human values. Instead of striving for peace, they
glorify war. Arthur Koestler had an explanation for it. He was inter-
viewed by the New York Times and was described as "a fighter for
men's minds." He was asked if man's greatest problem is to master
language, and he replied:
"Undoubtedly one of the biggest problems. There are Japanese
monkeys, you know, that are nomadic and travel in groups. These
groups sometimes meet. They are quite astonished by each other's
habits, because they have different cultures. Some have discovered
that you have to wash bananas in a river before eating them; other
monkeys don't wash bananas. If they were men, they would al-
ready be at war. The washers of bananas against the nonwashers.
Monkeys don't go to war because they cannot crystalize the con-
cept of washing bananas into an ideology, into slogans."
That's man's difficulty: monkeys can rise above him. Monkeys might
have been more human in their treatment of their kinsmen as barter,
in holding some of their ilk as hostages in kidnaping, in pursuing a
policy of murder in the streets.
How can we create a Security Council of Monkeys to establish a
New Charter to End War?
•
•
•
Rebelling Against Injustice
When is strike and demonstration justified? We suffer so much
from rebellion when it borders on violence that this question merits
consideration. There is a reported incident from the university com-
munity that especially commends it for cautious attention.
At a conference of the American Zionist Youth Foundation at Camp
Cummings, Brewster, N.Y., there were warnings of increasing pressures
on Jews from a growingly hostile radical left. This incident was related
by a PhD candidate in physical chemistry at the University of Indiana,
Fred Stein: When two Jewish students on the U. of I. campus ripped
down a poster which had been displayed by Arab students.depicting
litler and a swastika imposed upon a Star of
Moshe DayanAdolfj_
David, the university threatened to censure them for violating the civil
rights of Arab fellow-students. Then the Jewish students threatened a
strike until the university authorities rectified their stand.
Many questions thus are posed in the course of seeking justice:
we speak of justice because there are so many repeating incidents of
claims (as in the instance of Arabs) to the right to spread lies and
the rejection of protests against misrepresentations.
Universiy of Indiana Jewish students would emerge as great
cowards if they did not protest the university's actions. It's a pity
that struggles like those beween Jews and Arabs must call for rebellion
when truth is assaulted, but in the U. of I. instance it is so very clear
that the strilse threat is very often justified.
•
•
•
Replacing Terrorists With Normal Farmers
Best news of the past few days is the desire for a truce that
will assure continuation of a cease fire on Israel's borders.
Apparently terrorists have been ousted from some of the areas
in Jordan and farmers have returned with their cattle in areas within
sight of Israel. If it is a step in the direction of good will, perhaps
we are not deluded in hopes for an end to warfare and eventual peace.
Perhaps the Arab masses are learning that they are the real losers as
pawns in the hands of their irrational masters.
Death of a Dictator . • • Reverberations of Congress . . . Realities and International Responsibilities
When Israelis protested against the half-staffing of the American
flag on the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem on the day after Nasser's
death, there were some among the easily-frightened who were worried
lest Israel's judgment should be viewed as discourteous in a time of
mourning in Arab ranks. When, however, Arabs began to demonstrate
in East Jerusalem and to shout anti-Israel slogans in the name of
that great hero whose accomplishments may sum up to less than
the minimal, the justice of the complaint became apparent. The U.S.
flag was quickly restored to a normal position in Jerusalem.
There were some extremely rash sentimentalities that were moti-
vated by spur-of-the-moment courtesies upon Nasser's death and he
was termed a Hero of the Arab people. But the realists were not to
be fooled. Joseph Alsop knew better than to go overboard with encomia.
For the sake of the record his views should be retained as a reminder
of how a destructive force prevented peace in the Middle East,
advocated mass murder of Jews (shades of Streicher, Eichmann and
Hitler!) and failed to elevate the standards of his own people. Alsop,
in a column published on Oct. 1, before Nasser's burial, wrote from
Washington:
Gamal Abdel Nasser was a very whopping lie that had been planned
clever, very nasty, and above all, for that particular encounter. It
a supremely self-inflating man. In came to be very useful to have
the old days, before he became a the advance warning.
mere creature of the Soviets, he
If Nasser could have done it
was not inaccessible to Western
with safety to himself, he would
reporters.
have killed every man, woman and
So if you had any brains at all,
child of Jewish blood in the whole
you finally learned to watch for
state of Israel. Doing so would
the climactic moment in every in-
have
affirmed his standing as
terview, that so often enchanted
and deceived State Department "leader of the Arabs"—which was
what he mainly cared about.
Arabists and oil company dip-
And in this larger, rather more
lomats. At the climactic moment,
Nasser would lean forward, mas- grim perspective, he was a most
interesting
political phenomenon.
sage your knee in a rather un-
pleasant manner, and proclaim If you review the record of the
with enviable "sincerity" of tone: anti-colonial leaders since the Sec-
"My principills are very simpill, and World War, you find that a
Mister Alsop!" fairly simple rule applies. In the
Somehow, the peculiar pro- period before the horrible colonial-
nunciation made the statement ists finally went 'away, rational
more convincing—at least the first anti-colonial leaders had little or
time 'round. But hard experience no chance in most countries. There
taught that this proclamation of they would be, taking about educe-
"principills" that were "simpill," Lion, or irrigation, or equal rights,
was really a signal that Nasser or something else that might really
was about to tell you the most benefit the oppressed masses: and
somehow, they would have no au- Abdel Nasser really belonged to. would surely have been hustled off.
What will happened now, God
His vainglorious strutting as a
dience at all.
On the next soap box, however, world figure, plus his neglect of knows ! Egypt's internal problems
there would be the irrational, in- Egypt's fearful international prob- still cry out for practical solutions;
deed, the violently anti-rational lens came close to causing him to and most Egyptians seem to know
competitor, appealing to the dark- be hustled off the stage in 1967— it. But at a guess, the Soviets have
est emotions. Hatred was of course and most certainly at other times, got such a mortgage on Egypt, in
the chief emotion to be appealed too. If the Soviets had not pumped the course of pumping Nasser up
to; but the appeal to hatred had him up again, as though he were again, that his going may not make
another side that was even more an old, patched bicycle tire, he an enormous policy-difference.
Joseph Alsop was not alone in expressing these views. Even
attractive. Everything, everything,
everything was to be blamed on earlier, on Sept. 29, the New York Times editorially warned against
the hated occupier. And it almost demagogues, exposed the role of Nasser, and begged the Egyptians to
always worked.
eliminate from their system the poison that infestd their society.
The result was what we have That editorial stated:
with Russia help the Aswan high
seen, over and over again, in the
Carnal Abdel Nasser, son of a
last quarter century.
postal clerk who became idol of dam, one of the region's great en-
Despite the justice of their Egypt and sought to become leader gineering achievements. But there
grievances, newly liberated na- of all the Arab world, was a tragic is mounting evidence that the dam
tions found themselves unjustly and spectacular failure. Neverthe- may already be in the process of
saddled with leaders who were less, his sudden death yesterday producing an ecological disaster
"charismatic" megalomaniacs. Su- leaves a void than can only add that could leave Egypt far worse
karno in Indonesia, . Nkrumah in to the chaos• already threatening off than she ever was before.
Instead of accepting the United
Ghana, Ben Bella in Algeria, even to overwhelm the Middle East.
Nations-mandated partition of
(in a misleading English upper-
His
extraordinary
rapport
with
Palestine,
Nasser persisted in the
class way) Jawaharlal Nehru in
India, all followed exactly the the Arab masses, his gift for Arab folly that brought humiliat-
rhetoric,
his
daring
and
his
per-
ing
defeat
in 1948, leading Egypt
same pattern.
In other words, they had not sonal charm gave the Egyptian and its allies into two more disas-
leader
a
position
of
strength
among
ters, in 1956 and 1967.
the faintest notion what to do
His efforts to unite the Arabs
about education, or irrigation, or the Arabs and on the world stage
sewage disposal, or birth- control, that might have been used to great under a new Egyptian• imperialism
advantage
for
his
people
and
for
led
to a fraudulent union with
or anything else of a practical
character that really mattered to the peace of the world. But blinded Syria, fruitless intervention in
the suffering masses of the un- by his own ambitions, he vastly Yemen and continuous unsavory
fortunate nations they led. So they overreached himself, led his coun- intrigue against other Arab lead-
escaped from reality by continuing try into a series of disastrous wars ers. In the end he was struggling
the charade—by posturing before and accomplished little of perma- to contain an irrepressible ex-
the world as great "popular" lead- nent value either for his fellow- plosion of Arab disunity in Jor-
ers of neutralism and the New Egyptians or his fellow-Arabs. dan, reaping the bitter fruits of
None of his attempted achieve- discords he himself had helped to
Left.
American, English and Western ments was unqualified success;
He forced the last vestiges of
European left-wing intellectuals most were unqualified failures.
being what they are, these shabby
He sought to overcome Egypt's British colonialism out of Egypt
mountebanks were always taken debilitating poverty by building
(Concluded on Page 5)
with utmost seriousness.
This was the class that Gamal 2 — Friday, October 9, 1970
THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS