Purely Commentary
Israel's Role Seriously Affected by Indifference
Dominating Christian Leadership . . . The Minority
That Remembers Holocaust ... Amalek Reincarnated
By Philip
Slomovitz
Amalek of Old on Scene Again Threatening Jewry's Existence
Kissinger, Rodgers, Fulbright, Nixon himself can offer Israel security on some
concessional basis.
We have to remember the past; we must keep in view the intentions of those
who would destroy.
A cease fire will need more than implementation: it requires caution in its
adherence.
Caution equates with a warning: beware! It calls for turning back the pages
of the propaganda manual.
Let's look at a single page. Sadat and his associates keep speaking about the
Palestinians and their support for the so-called Palestinian National Council which
met in Cairo not so long ago. That council adopted a program declaring:
"The liberation of Palestine . . . is a national duty to repulse the Zionist
imperial invasion . . . and to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine." Only
"Jews who were living permanently in Palestine at the beginning of the Zionist
invasion" (dated in another section as 1917) "will be considered Palestinians." The
2,800,000 Jews of Israel who were not living in Palestine in 1917 would be aliens
with no right of residence.
Subsequently, this addition to the quoted program was announced as a policy
aimed at Israel and her Jewish citizens:
"Israel by the very nature of its formation is a closed, racist society linked
Christianity and Israel
The Rev. Claude Duvernoy, the distinguished Jerusa-
lem Christian theologian, was among the small group of
liberal non-Jews who were outraged by the silence in their
ranks over the infamy of the Yom Kippur invasion of
Israel on two fronts, both at the exact moment of 2 p.m.
sharp on the Day of Atonenient. Shocked by the attitude
of the press he stated:
"If Israel, in order to prevent what happened on Yom
Kippur, had opened fire first, the Christian press would
have been full of sarcastic comments about this shocking
lack of respect for such a holy day. If Israel, in order to
protect her very existence, had once opened fire, on a
Moslem holy day, this same press would have exploded
with shocked comments and protests. I am not exaggerat-
ing: Let us only remember June 1967, when one or two
shells hit the St. Anne Catholic Church in the Old City,
near the Lions' Gate. A wave of protest rose from the
Catholic world. And as far as the Protestants are con-
cerned, one need only remember the shocking reaction
of the Lutheran Federation, demanding the immediate de-
parture of the 'occupying Israeli forces' from Lutheran
ground on Mount Scopus. Yet the Lutheran Federation
never protested when the Jordanian King's occupying
forces started to transform the August Victoria Hospital
into an army base weeks before the June war."
He saw through the spiritual abomination of equat-
ing murderer with victim when there was need for a
cease fire by stating that "When the Jewish people are
murderously attacked on Yom Kippur and, moreover, in
the very month of Ramadan, Church leaders (who like
to be called Holy Father, Beatitude, Grace and Monsig-
fore, when Jesus came as Servant!) remain silent. They
pray, of course, for the cease fire, thus putting the mur-
derer and the victim in the same category. There are
many Christians like me who are fed up with pious prayers
which are not followed by declarations or action.
Thereupon Rev. Duvernoy issued this indictment of
clergymen who fair to speak in a time of crisis for Israel:
"The Christian hierarchy and Christian theologians
have not accepted_ the deep prophetical meaning of Israel's
resurrection on her land—they refuse to see the evident
messianic implications of this unique adventure.
"There are, I believe, some 40 patriarchs, beatitudes,
graces and monsignori in the Old City of Jerusalem alone.
They have all kept quiet since Yom Kippur, although this
nation is still in grave danger. Some Christians did publish
a protest, and it is certainly a good move. But unfortu-
nately the signatories. represent only themselves. They
do not speak in the name of their churches. Will one—only
one—of the leaders of official Christendom speak up and
save the honor of Christendom?"
These are words of protest uttered in Jerusalem. The
Rev. Duvernoy has his counterpart in this country.
America's most distinguished theologians have signed
statements supporting Israel's role in the international
community issued by Christians Concerned for Israel.
In view of it, how does one explain a member of the
Fellowship United Methodist Church who, admitting at
the outset, in what could be judged as an irrational
article about the Yom Kippur War and Israel in one of
our suburban papers that he doesn't know what it is all
about, had the audacity to assert ignorantly: "I suppose
it's even difficult to live in a nation that is openly a
religious state if you are not of that religious majority.
People might even look at you as though your kind of
religion shouldn't even be there, you shouldn't exist."
So much ignorance is packed into that paragraph that
readers of the periodical in which it appeared have a
right to ask why the editors passed it without seeing the
gall in the typewritten words.
A minority, a remnant, always saves the honor of
the erring masses. That's the case with the blundering
clergymen whose failure to serve justly in time of need
is so deplorable. Therefore the statement that was issued
in behalf of the National Conference of Christians and
Jews by its president, Dr. David Hyatt, is so redeeming.
Let us quote Dr. Hyatt again:
"As an organization of committed Christians and Jews,
we express deep moral outrage that the attack on the State
2—Friday, Nov. 23, 1973
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
to imperialism . . . The aim of the Palestinian revolution is to eliminate this entity
politically, militarily, socially, culturally and in terms of its trade unions, and to
liberate Palestine completely."
It was never a secret: the intention is not to drive Israel back either to the
Oct. 22, 1973, cease fire line (whatever it is supposed to mean) or to the June 4,
1967, borders, but to oust the People Israel from the Land of Israel, to destroy or
acquire what we have built, to offer a shadowy ghostline for the pre-1917 Jewish
population of the then Palestine and to tell the 2,500,000 who have built or are
building Medinat Israel that it is to be eliminated.
That is why there can be so little trust in promises. That is why we must go
to Holy Scriptures again for the admonition: "Skhor et Amalek"—Remember Amalek!
That is why Israel is drenched in blood while hoping and striving for a true kinship
with cousin-neighbors.
That is why all Jews, everywhere, must keep in view the realities: the danger
is of annihilation, a threat very openly reasserted time and again by Israel's enem ,
neighbors.
Woe unto those who do not recognize that the targets are not Israelis alone
but all Jews. Therefore the revived admonition:
Remember Amalek!
of Israel was launched on Yom Kippur, the day held most
holy to the Jews. This assault is in itself to be deplored,
but especially on this holy day it is a sacrilege that can-
not be too strongly condemned.
"We reassert Israel's moral and juridical right to
exist within secure boundaries, and no international re-
arrangements that emerge from the war ought to be al-
lowed to jeopardize her existence. The emerging oil di-
plomacy, lately exacerbated by the domestic energy crisis,
should have no Place whatever in the determination of
the policies of the United States toward the Middle East.
"Above all, we wish for peace. We pray that on this
25th anniversary of Israel's birth, there shall be made
alive the shalom for which the world yearns."
Another Christian who has raised his voice in support
of Israel is the Rev. William Walters who is now in
Jerusalem. A graduate of Lutheran Theological Seminary,
with a doctorate in Judaica from Iowa State University,
Dr. Walters has held pulpits in the United Methodist
Church. •
Di s turbed over "the silence and reluctance of Chris-
tian churches to take any action whatever," Dr. Walters
wrote:
"Israel is the child of Jewry which now lives after
the loss of 6,000,000 parents. Whether out of remorse
for past injustices to Jewry by Christians, or through the
realization that every minority people has the right to
self-identity and land, Christians are now called to the
challenge of Israel. I am afraid nothing more than empty,
actionless statements will be heard. No Christian dares
move out of his safety to hoist a fresh Arab flag here, or,
conversely, to volunteer his service for Israel. Few Chris-
tian funds will arrive; little Christian muscle will be used
in the battle for or against Israel. Christians will remain
silent, watch and wait.
"This past century has shown that Christianity is not
to be trusted by Jewry in times of need. As Herzl went
with hat in hand to Rome for assistance in building a
Jewish state in Palestine; as world Jewry called upon
Christianity to place pressure upon the Reich to end the
slaughter of European Jewry; as Israelis waited patiently
for their telephone to ring and mail to arrive in support
of the Six Day War—so once again Israel will be sadly
mistaken if in this war she looks for prompt and valuable
assistance from Christianity.
"Though I deePly wish it were not so, I must predict
that concrete Christian action simply will not come. For
Jewry, even the most enlightened Christians of the past
have been notoriously neutral and ambivalent toward their
needs as a people. So I believe they will be again. As
Christians, therefore, our cry to Israel must be, 'Don't
The Honor for Woodcock: 'Israel Has Union Label'
Metropolitan Detroit's honors for Leonard Woodcock,
president of the UAW, in the form of the 1973 National
Humanitarian Award, to be presented to him at the annual
dinner here next Wednesday, has
special significance.
Mr. Woodcock's condemna-
tion of the "unprovoked Egyptian-
Syrian military attack" in launch-
ing the Yom Kippur War was one
of many declarations by labor
leaders in this country in Israel's
defense.
AFL-CIO President George
Meany not only led labor's ranks
in acts of friendship for the en-
dangered people of Israel: his ex-
planation that "Israel has a union
label" was a mark of identifica-
Leonard Woodcock
tion with the Histadrut and the people of Israel. It
marked a continuation of fraternal traditions between the
working people of Israel and the forces of labor every-
where.
Mr. Woodcock personifies that role, and the honor
accorded him will serve the double purpose of emphasiz-
ing that role and of giving encouragement. of Bnai Brith's
tasks of strengthening activities in behalf of youth ac-
tivities from resources acquired from proceeds of the
annual 1973 Humanitarian Dinner. It is an occasion to
express great satisfaction in our community's deep in-
terest in both objectives.
count on us to help! Help yourselves; no one really cares!
Don't trust us! In the safety and quiet of the lecture hall
and dialogue table we will voice all sorts of aid and com-
fort. Yet when your life is challenged, don't look to us.
Save yourselves!'
"Harsh words, but I believe historically realistic
words. Advice which Israelis and world Jewry have found
to be true long ago."
Several weeks before the Yom Kippur attack on Is-
rael, 18 of the most prominent Christian clergymen of all
faiths, serving as the Commission on Faith and Order of
the National Council of the Church of Christ in the U. S.,
anticipated the emergence of a renewed anti-Semitism in
this country. Taking into account the threat of bigotry
and the dangers that confronted Israel, and unhesitating-
ly critical in some respects, the lengthy statement of these
clergymen asserted in part:
"As a Political state, Israel is oven to all the tempta-
tions of power. As a result of its military triumphs in the
Six-Day War, the charge is sometimes made that Israel
is belligerently expansionistic. Visitors to Israel. however,
can easily disco;er that the overriding concern of the
majority of Israelis is peace, not more territory. Israel's
anxiety about national defense reflects the age-old human
yearning for security, the anxiety of a people yvhose his-
tory has been a saga of frightful persecution, climaxed by
the Holocaust of 6,000,000 men, Women and children.
Against such a tormented background, is it surprising that
the Jewish people should want to defend themselves? It
would be quite unrealistic and unjust to expect Israel to
become a sort of heavenly society of which more is de-
manded than of other nations. This does not mean that
Christians must endorse every policy decision by the
Israeli government. Many Jews, both within Israel and
without, do not so. Rather, Christians must refrain from
the type of criticism that would use Israel's failures, real
or imagined, to live up to the highest moral standards as
an excuse to deny its right to exist. Such a view would
be a double standard, one not applied to any other nation
on earth.
"As Christians we urge all nations of the world (our
own nation, Israel, and the Arab states included) to rec-
ognize that there is no way to secure lasting peace based
on the balance of military power and the use of fear as
a deterrent. Rather, the only road leading to peace is trust
in and understanding of neighbors and partners. We urge
the Church to attend to its role as agent of reconciliation.
"At present anti-Semitism is unfashionable and seems
to have gone underground in the United States, though
some recent studies show it is on the rise. But even an
underground anti-Semitism surfaces from time to time in
various forms .and disguises. New Left literature has ex-
coriated the Jews not as Jews but as "Zionists." Anti-
Semitism, however, is a difficult virus to counteract. It
has a pervasiveness that infects our whole civilization
and manifests itself in education, housing, job opportuni-
ties and social life. Fortunately, some Christian churches
are working hard to excise from their liturgy and educa-
tion any anti-Semitic references.
"Those who refuse to learn from history must relive
the errors and evils of the past. In times of civil dis-
orders, agitators have arisen and will continue to appear
in our society attempting to make Jews the scapegoats
for the evils of an era. If problems like inflation and un-
employment continue to escalate, if a depression should
set in, we can be fairly sure that the radical Right and/or
the radical Left will make Jews out to be the culprits.
"The pressure of our violent times urges us as Chris-
tians to live up to our calling as ministers of reconcilia-
tion, ready and willing to stifle rumors about the Jews
and to build up an atmosphere of brotherly understanding
in Christian-Jewish relations. We strongly commend Jew-
ish-Christian dialogue as a favored instrument by which
we may explore the richness of Judaism and the Jewish
roots of our Christian faith."
Much has happened since -these words were uttered.
New conditions have arisen. Basically, the views of these
men of faith retain their significance. They prove that a
vital minority in Christianity does not approve of hatred,
insist upon recognition of Israel's right to exist. Now we
must hope that their efforts will bear fruit—in the inter-
est of peace for Israel, for the Arab states and for man-
kind.