Purely Commentary
Israelis Do Not Follow Orders Blindly . . . Dayan's Pride in Ethical Deeds
A participant in a symposium on ethnic groups—religion, race and nationality as
differentiating factors that make up the American society—left one of the sessions with
an unsolicited opinion about Moshe Dayan. "Murderer Dayan," was his comment.
On this basis, Generals Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery and all who led the
armies of Allies in World War II could be called murderers.
There is another basis: possession of knowledge regarding the man so hated
that name-calling is resorted to by a person whose knowledge of world conditions
should teach him realism and restraint.
The facts:
We are now in the process of reviewing the morality of "order taking" and sub-
mission to "assignments" by superiors. (Also see editorial in this issue).
In one of our recent columns, in which we discussed the morality of the My Lai
cse as it related to the Hitler-Himmler-Eichmann-Nazi Era, we had occasion to make
the following comments:
We have referred to this incident on
an earlier occasion editorially, and we
call attention to it again. It is true that
Israeli soldiers have been given the right
to protect themielves in the horribly dan-
gerous Gaza area where life is endan-
gered. For the first time Arabs, under
Israeli rule, have the right to travel out
of that area, and 5.000 Arabs go to inner
Israeli areas on jobs, provided for them
by Israel. Until June of 1967 Arabs were
imprisoned by Egypt in that area, and
now they possess freedoms! The terrorists
who are not respecting that freedom have
endangered the lives of all who visit that
area — and the dead at the hands of the
terrorists are mainly Arabs! That is why
Israelis who are there must protect them-
selves!
But orders are not followed blindly by
Israelis! They do not tolerate murder!
They reject tyranny and terrorism!
We reiterate the view that Dayan, symbolic of Israeli attitudes, is the humani-
tarian who befriends rather than murders.
On the world scene today there is no better example of a disseminator of good
will than Moshe Dayan. He and his first wife, Ruth Dayan, were and remain leading
spirits in efforts to establish the best relations with Israeli Arabs. They are succeeding,
prejudices of the ignorant notwithstanding.
Dayan speaks Arabic and the Israeli Arabs worship him. He is the idol of all
who strive for peace. Naturally, he is a military genius. That's his duty: to protect
his people. He has another duty: to his conscience — and that leads him to become a
spreader of good will for the best Arab-Jewish relations in his country. Any wonder
that he is admired — and respected?
How do Israeli soldiers respond to
order-taking? In an article entitled "Gaza
Report: Terror and the Frontier-Guards,"
by the Israeli journalist, Victor Cygiel-
man, correspondent of Le Nouvel Observa-
teur and Radio Luxembourg, in the Middle
East monthly New Outlook, we read:
"A year ago, Israeli soldiers stationed
in the Gaza Strip were permitted to do
what is still forbidden in the other occu-
pied territories — to shoot in the direction
of a grenade-thrower even if he melts into
a crowd. But the most of the soldiers on
patrol told their commanders that they
could not do this: they refused on the
annuli that such action risked injury to
Innocent bystanders. Revealing this on
Jan. 6, General Dayan added: 'And I must
tell you that I am proud that our soldiers,
daily exposed to these killers, refused the
pernaissio
" n."
* * *
Moshe Dayan the Realist Who Knows the History of the Middle East
On the subject of Moshe Dayan, it is necessary to point to another quality in
the man: he knows his history, his people, his neighbors, the Bible.
There is so much rancor now over the proposals for a Palestinian state that the
Dayan view is valuable. He gave his views a while ago in an address to Technion
students in Haifa. What he said is so valuable — especially in the light of statements
made in the past few weeks by Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba and Egyptian
Foreign Affairs Minister 'Mohammed Hassan el Zayyat—that it should be studied in
the He* of developing historical occurrences. Dayan said in his Technion speech:
The Palestinians could have retained
their political entity in a part of the land,
lands, but their properties and businesses
when in the other part Israel was estab-
were left in their countries of origin, and
lished But they themselves abandoned
most of these have been seized by the
this entity and preferred to join the King-
local authorities.
dom of Jordan. thus ending for all time
The leaders of the Arab terrorist or-
the political concept of Palestine. When-
ganizations claim in the name of the Arab
ever we discuss a peace settlement with
refugees that they want a Palestinian
the Leaders of the West Bank, as the
state not next to but instead of the Zionist
representatives of the Palestinian cause,
entity. Their demand to return to Israel
we confuse two groups of people and two
has been rejected by the Israel govern-
separate problems — the residents of
ment for 25 years, and the terror cam-
Judea. Samaria (and the Gaza Strip) who
have been under our control since 1967 — paign is not going to make their demand
any more persuasive. Sooner or later the
and the Palestinians who abandoned Is-
Arabs 'must. accept this transfer of popu-
rael in 1948 and who live in refugee
lations •and absorb the 1948 refugees
camps.
among themselves in their own lands.
The Palestine problem which is on the
agenda of peace talks is not connected
The Six-Day War was • in this respect
with the Six-Day War, and the legitimate
totally different. From the 650,000 in-
rights and aspirations of the Palestinians,
habitants of the West Bank, about 150,000
which not only the Arabs, but also the
or 20 per cent left their homes as a result
U. S. delegates to the Security Council- of the 1967 war. But these departing
demand to be taken into account — are
people did. not become refugees like those
not part of the problem of secure and
of 1948. They. never lost *their Jordanian
recognised borders (Resolution 242) but citizenship. nor did they go to a foreign
are a separate and distinct matter.
country. They • may — and indeed do —
The 0948) War of Independence led to blend . into the economic and political
fabric of Jordan. Also with regard to the
a Jewish-Arab transfer of populations. As
land: Only a small area of 20,000 dunams
a result of this war and its aftermath,
of the land of those who left in 1967, has
about 700,000 of 860,000 Arabs living in
Israel fled, and, in the other direction.
so far been made available for Jewish
came an equal number of Jews to Israel
settlement of the West Bank.
from the Arab countries.
Furthermore, from among the Arab
The same is true of property and land:
villages which were abandoned and de-
Before the 1948 war, Jews owned less than
stroyed during the 1967 war, the Israel
2,000,000 dunams of land while the Arab
government •has ensured that the follow-
refugees abandoned an area double in
ing.ones be rebuilt and the original popu-
size — about 4,000,000 dunams, which re-
lation resettled there: Kalkilia, Habla,
verted to the ownership of the government
Zeita, Dora, Beit Hawa and Beit Mirsim.
of Israel
Only three villages in the Latrun region
The Jews who left the Arab countries which were destroyed in the war: Imwas,
did not, indeed, leave behind agricultural
Beit Nuba and Yalu, (with a total popu-
2—Friday, July 27, 1973
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
More About Order Taking and the Israeli Viewpoint
Backed Up by Moshe Dayan, the Arabs' Idol . . . Views
of Israel's Military Genius on Palestinian State
ration of 6,000 people) have not been
rebuilt; for strictly security considera-
tions, (Note: these villages lie astride the
main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway) and
so the Latrun region (15,000 dunams) has
been given over for Jewish settlement.
As for the demand of landowners who
fled to Jordan during the 1967 war, to
return to their land — this does not have
the same negative political connotation as
the demand of the 1948 refugees to return.
If the 150,000 departees return to the West
Bank, this will not undermine the national,
political or security structure of this re-
gion — which would not be the case if the
million 1948 refugees were to return to
Israel.
The issue of political status is also
different from that obtaining after 1948.
The Jordanian citizenship of the West
Bank residents exists and is recognized
and not one of the principal West Bank
leaders is asking for the establishment of
a Palestinian state. Sheikh Muhammad
Ali Jaabari, Maazuz al-Masri, Anwar al-
Hatib and Anwar al-Nusseibeh all claim
continuing allegiance to the kingdom of
Jordan.
By Philip
Slomovitz
there, but not at turning Israel into a
Palestinian state or at establishing an
independent Palestinian state separated
from Jordan. One must carefully dis-
tinguish between the demands of the 1948
refugees and the wishes of the West Bank
Palestinians.
The only region in which events of 1967
resembled those of 1948 was that of the
Golan. All the Arab population — about
70,000 — fled their 35 villages during the
war and moved to Damascus, and in their
stead Jewish settlement is being estab-
lished.
But this problem comes under bilateral
Syrian-Israeli relations and has nothing to
do with the Palestine question.
One should not ignore reality, even if
the only things hurt by the implementa-
tion of Zionism were the eradicated
mosquitoes and the dried-up swamps.
It would seem that even an objective
observer would determine that the source
of these human tragedies and unsolved
political problems has been largely the
continuing refusal of the Arabs to accept
Israel's outstretched hand in peace, and
their persistence in fighting us instead of
The demand raised by West Bank resi-
cooperating with us to break down per-
dents to fulfill their legitimate rights and
sonal
and political patterns, and seek a
aspirations is aimed at ending Israeli rule
common destiny.
If only those who are affected — among Arab leaders the masses — would only
sit down with Dayan and his associates! We might have a peaceful agreement almost
overnight. But there is panic. There _are threats of assassinations. Jordanians and
Lebanese are scared out of their wits by threats from terrorists. There are no doubt
many in Egypt who would sit with Israelis and not only talk but make peace. They
are frightened by what had already happened from terrorism to many Arab diplomats.
Therefore — we must wait for opportune time for solutions. Perhaps rational
approaches will influence prejudiced and uninformed Americans who are not endorsing
aid to Israel as much as the Arabs. But we must wait for the era of good sense out
of which should sprout amity.
* * *
The 'Jewish Angle' in the Watergate
It was inevitable! A Jewish angle had
to creep in on what is being recorded
under the initiated and abbreviated name
for the Committee for the Re-Election of
the President as CREEP!
In his Toughing It Out column in the
current issue of Newsweek, Stewart Alsop
made this comment:
The President seems likely to sur-
vive the trials and tribulations that
immediately confront him. For the
longer run, he has certain factors go-
ing for him. One is what an aging
Connecticut politician calls "the Jew
of Malta Rule," after a quotation from
Christopher Marlowe's play of that
name: "I loved her once, but that was
in another country, and besides, the
wench is dead."
"The Jew of Malta Rule" is that
the memory of the electorate is short.
In the minds of many voters, the
Watergate wench will be just about
dead in a year or so, and the name of
John Dean III will ring no bell, or at
most a distant tinkle. Another long-
run factor that seems to be going for
the President is the surprising con-
tinued support of his hard-core con-
stituency.
So much can be read into literary
quotes, especially when they are derived
from the Middle Ages!
Christopher Marlowe's Barabas in "The
Jew of Malta" served as a pattern for
William Shakespeare's character of Shy-
",
lok in "The Merchant of Venice," Barabas
was portrayed as a contemptible fellow,
as a monster. He reveled in murderous
orgies.
The connection with CREEP? Let's say
it's minimal, so as not to rob Stewart
Alsop of a clever idea. Damned clever
these columnists!
*
When the House Is on Fire
A Detroit physician-scholar who is
steeped in Yiddish knowledge — Dr.
Henry Chapnick — reminded us of an old
Yiddish saying as an application to the
Watergate calamities. He recalled the
adage about "mekane zein die vantzen
az die hoiz brennt" — "pitying the bed-
bugs when the house is on fire."
There is as much realism as philosophy
in this aphorism. The bugs are running
all over the place — and those on the
watch at the gate must help extinguish
the fire. How else can we save the honor
of the Nation?
* * C
The Ancient Canards
A leading article in Harper's on "The
Phantoms of Beverly Hills," dealing with
the Stanley Goldblum "go," has angered
some readers. A brief reference in Harp-
er's to the Jewishness of the person,• who
at one point was called a "cocky Jew,"
also is quoted in a margin subhead which
reads: "Goldblum impressed those institu-
tional managers who are convinced that
"Jews know how to make money.' "
If we were to get angry over every
designation applied to Jews, we'd literally
go nuts. A judge called a lawyer a "smart-
a — Jew." Goldblum is called a "cocky
Jew." A generalization speaks about Jews
who are smart to make money. A circular
distributed in downtown Detroit buildings
by a reactionary candidate for mayor at-
tacks a judge who happens to be Jewish
as "a Jew whose hatred of Christianity is
inherent to his self-acknowledged Marxist-
Leninist (Communist) beliefs . , . "
That's how it is in the ranks of either
those who yield to popular and inherited
cliches and those who spout anti-Semitism.
The former have heard things from child-
hood and pursue the prejudices uncon-
sciously; the latter will call a Jew a
capitalist and a communist, whatever
helps spread the bigotries.
Moshe Dayan
There is little that is new under the
sun, and certainly not much new when
the Jew is the target.