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THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Asociation, National Editorial Assoela-
lion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.,
W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Second-Claas Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign
rnis
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Easiness Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
fro
DREW LIEIERWITZ
Advertising Ma
Scriptural Readings for Concluding Days of Sukkot
Pentateurhal portions: Saturday, Shemini Atzeret, Deut. 14:22-16:17, Num. 29:35-
30:1; Sunday, Simhat Torah, Deut. 33:1-34:12, Gen. 1:1-2:3, Num. 29:35-30:1.
Prophetical portions: Saturday, I Kings 8:54-66; Sunday, Joshua 1:1-18.
Candle lighting, Friday, Sept 29, 5 p.m.
VOL. LXII. No. 3
Page Four
September 29, 1972
International Responsibility to End Terror
Several days before the resort to the mails to kill Ami Shachori by means of the
bomb-rigged letter sent to the Israel Embassy in London, the Israel Embassy in Washing-
ton issued a policy statement in which it called for international action to end the state
of terror that had been unleashed throughout the world by Arab terrorists. In its state-
ment, the Israeli spokesmen in Washington outlined the responsibility of the international
community- as follows:
"The international community can and must. act quickly and decisively to attack
both the roots and the branches of the monster of terrorism. The United States has
given an initial positive lead in this direction. There are two principal avenues of
action:
"1. The world must demand that the Arab states concerned put an immediate
end to all forms of terrorism and political murder by individuals and organizations
operating from their soil. Such a call can and will be heeded if governments and pub-
lic bodies in the free world back it up by concrete steps to bar the offending coun-
tries, systematically and effectively, from the maintenance of normal relations—on the
official, commercial or any other level—with the governments and peoples of nations
that continue to cherish basic values of human decency.
"2. The most stringent and ruthless measures must be introduced and main-
tained to . bar the entry of potential Arab terrorists Into foreign countries, to monitor
the activities of those already in those countries, to prevent any link-up between them
and local subversive elements, to enforce stringent security precautions at airports and
other public places that may provide likely tagets for terrorist action, and to mete
out swift justice to any individuals found to be associated with terrorist crimes or
conspiracies.
"Firm action along those lines, in every country serving as an actual or poten-
tial scene of terrorist activity, will not only contribute to ridding the Middle East of
a major obstacle to peace but to cleansing the rest of the world of the destructive and
contagious curse of terrorism and murder, thus enabling the citizens of this and all
other countries to go about their daily tasks in the freedom and security which are their
right In a free society."
While the occurrences of recent weeks, commencing with the Lydda massacre, the mur-
der of two Israeli diplomats, the shocking acts by sick-minded Arab terrorists in Munich,
justify these demands for international action against the state of horror into which the
world communities have been plunged by organized groups of Arab bandits, there is even
greater responsibility upon Arab governments to put an end to the terrorist acts. No one is
fooled any longer by the claims that only a "Black September" group is responsible for
what had happened. Fatah claims unity in Arab ranks in organizing terror against Israel
which affects the entire free world; and spokesmen for the Arab governments have con-
tinuously supported the murderers.
How else is the situation to be judged? Where does the money come from for bombs
if not for the oil-rich Arab leaders of Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt?
The time has come for a showdown by the world's powers much more than by Israel.
This is not an Israeli responsibility: it is a duty incumbent upon those who call themselves
democratic and humanitarian. There has to be an end to pussyfooting and to false claims of
decency, Russia and China are as guilty as the Arabs: many of the armaments come from
them, and they must share guilt for what has happened.
Israel has acted, and the sanctimonious among us have been rebuking Israelis and Jews
generally for retaliating. Would they perpetuate the terrorist mobs wherever they may be
hiding, whether it is in Lebanon or in Syria, or whether they begin to send forth their
missiles of destruction from Cairo, or will the clergymen who spout holiness join in asking
for an end to terror?
The civilized world is on trial. Israel's will to live will not be crushed, either by the
gangs of so-called statesmen and diplomats who join so often in condoning mass murders,
or by the Arab governments that give courage to the insane gangs of murderers. To assure-
an end to medieval barbarism, action to end the state of terror must come, in ad-
dition to Washington, from Paris, London, Antwerp, Brussels, the Scandinavian and other
countries—and from the United Nations. Else the chaos aimed at Israel will strike at every
person of note in the free world.
To keep the record straight, let it be remembered that the United States spoke firm-
ly on many of the matters that have disgraced mankind in recent weeks. Russia and China
assumed roles of cruelty together with the Arab states. Perhaps the United Nations can yet
assume a better image consonant with the ideals that had been dreamed for it. Its actions
in the past have not been praiseworthy: they were often deplorable, and the overwhelming
majority, under influence from Afro-Asians, the Arab bloc and the Soviet Union, acted
inhumanely toward Israel
The time has come for a showdown, for expose of the intolerant and unjust, for a true
evaluation of conditions as they affect all mankind. No one can consider himself safe under
prevailing conditions. Let there be an outpouring of public opinion that will tell those who
live in fright under the thumb of terror that the time of reckoning is at hand, that hypocrisy
in the international organization must end and that a new era must commence for a want of
justice, security and human decency.
Bassani's New Novel Treats
Bias in Contrast With Shyness
Georgio Bassani is famous as the author of "The Garden of the•
Finzi-Continis." There is a warmness, a compassion and a human
factor in his writings that justifies the admiration he gains and the
impressions he leaves as a master of descriptive situations.
He proves it in his newest novel, "Behind the Door," published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. In a splendid translation from the Italian
by William Weaver, Bassani narrates the experiences of a Jewish lad
from a prosperous Ferrarese family among his classmates.
He sits next to one who is a rather dominant fellow, but he does
his lessons with another, a newcomer, from a less affluent family. The
former, Carlo Cattolica, is the impersonation of the native, the mem-
ber of the Catholic majority; the latter, Luciano Pulga, is like an
intruder who is revealed as tricky, an ingrate, squealing untruthfully
on his Jewish friend.
The narrator, the Jewish lad, is shy, submissive, unaggressive.
He knows it and he suffers from it.
Cattolica happened to invite Pulga for some study periods, and
that was when the ingrate hurled epithets at the Jews who had given
him hospitality in the narrator's home. Cattolica invites the Jewish
lad to hear it—behind the door that hid him—that's why the title of
the book—during a specially arranged session at the Cattolica home.
The young Jew heard the epithets, but he never revealed the
knowledge of it to Pulga. He kept treating him graciously.
Pulga was his guest, be kept treating him well, and at the resort,
on a boat, while the young Jew, a swimmer, watched Pulga, who could
not swim, and pitied him: he saw in him a person of loneliness. That's
when—as he debated whether to expose the rascal—the abused young
Jew thought to himself in these concluding words of the wonderful novel:
".. . at that same moment when, looking at that wretched, naked
back—suddenly pure, unreachable in its loneliness—I was giving in to
these thoughts, something must already have been telling me that
while he, Luciano Pulga, was surely able to look it in the face, the
whole truth, I wasn't. Slow to understand, incapable of a single action
or a single word, locked to my cowardice and my rancor, I remained
the same little, helpless assassin as always. And as for the door behind
which, once again, I was hiding (from him, Luciano, and from my
mother as well), I would not find in myself, now or ever, the strength
and the courage to fling it open."
There is masterful power in this study of human characters, of
sell - study as the author provides for his little Jewish hero who views
himself as a coward. There seems to be magnitude in the failure to
expose a fellow human for his faults, his guilt, his ingratitude—because
the guilty one was such a victim of loneliness.
In "Behind the Door," Georgio Bassani has created another master-
piece.
Valuable Book for Youth:
Grands"Children of Israel
Marked contributions to the need of providing informative literary
material for Jewish youth on major Jewish subjects have been made
by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
Its books for children have, in recent years, filled a great need.
Latest among such valuable publishing tasks is a new book for
young readers, "The Children of Israel" by Samuel and Tamar Grand.
It is an excellently told story and is filled with suitable illustrations.
Large-sized, typographically attractive, the Grands' book describes
the children of Israel at home, in school, on the fields, at play.
It is not the Jewish children alone who are the concern of
the two able authors and illustrators, but the Arab youngsters as
well who are a part of Israel. The Grands describe their schools,
their way of life, their spirit of friendship with Israeli youngsters.
T he holiday moods are outlined, and there is a specially described
chapter on the children of Jerusalem and their role in the Israeli life.
The Grands have produced a commendable work, and the Reform
UAIIC has earned gratitude for publishing this and similar much-
needed books for children.