Purely Commentary
'Appro ation of merican eop e or srae a ra i Iona
Anticipation Dating Back to 1952 . Significance of Sinai's
Position: an Expert's Evaluation of. Its Strategic Status
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Slomovitz
Traditional American Israel Policy: The Common Purpose of Civilized Mankind'
Uninformed propagandists often question the justification of American friend-
ship for Israel that has developed in substantial economic and military assistance
to the Jewish state. It becomes necessary, from time to time, to recall the back-
ground of this traditional amity.
For many years, the American Palestine Committee drew much of its strength
from the U. S. Congress. For some time, Senators Arthur H. Vandenberg and Robert
F. Wagner were co-chairmen of the committee.
On the 25th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, on Nov. 2, 1942, 68 members
of the Senate and 194 members of the House of Representatives, issued a statement
which was entitled "The Common Purpose of Civilized Mankind: A Traditional
American Policy Confirmed."
The signers of that statement included Michigan's distinguished Senator Van-
denberg. In the list of Congressmen whose names were among the signers of that
statement was the late John D. Dingell, father of the present Congressman John D.
Dingell Jr. The elder Rep. Dingell was one of the dedicated friends of the Zionist
cause.
Other Michigan congressmen who signed the 1942 statement were Fred Bradley,
Albert J. Engel, Frank E. Hook, Bartel J. Jonkman, Rudolph G. Tenerowicz and Roy
0. Woodruff.
That historic statement by the members of the 77th Congress declared:
"Twenty-five years ago the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration
pledging itself to facilitate the establishment of a National Home for the Jewish people
in Palestine. The Declaration was published to the world with the approval of the
other Powers allied with Great Britain in the World War, and with the encouragement
and support of the Government of the United States. It was written into the Peace
Treaty with the aid and approval of President Wilson who publicly expressed his
confidence that the purposes of the Declaration would be fulfilled. A few years later,
the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States, by unanimous vote,
adopted a joint resolution favoring the establishing of the Jewish National Home, and
on September 21, 1922, the resolution was duly signed by Pr6ident Harding. Since
then, this policy has been reaffirmed by every succeeding Administration, including
the present. It has thus become the declared and traditional policy of the United States
to favor the restoration of the Jewish National Home.
"The Balfour Declaration was justly hailed throughout the world as an act
of historic reparation and as a charter of freedom for the Jewish people. It was de-
signed to open the gates of Palestine to homeless and harassed multitudes and to
pave the way for the establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth.
"The reasons which 25 years ago, led the American people and the government of
the United States to favor the cause of Jewish national restoration in Palestine are still
valid today. In fact, the case for a Jewish homeland is overwhelmingly stronger and
the need more urgent now than ever before. In Palestine the resettlement has advanced
from the status of a hopeful experiment to that of a heartening reality, while in Europe
the position of the Jews has deterioriated to an appalling degree. Millions of uprooted
and homeless Jews will strive to reconstruct their lives anew in their ancestral home
when the hour of deliverance will come.
"We, therefore, take this occasion, the 25th anniversary of the issuance of the
Balfour Declaration, to record our continued interest in and support of the purposes and
principles which it embodies. We wish to send a message of hope and cheer to those in
Palestine who are confronting the common enemy with courage and fortitude and ar ,,
contributing unstintingly of their manpower and effort to the democratic cause.
"Faced as we are by the- fact that the Nazi government, in its Jewish policy,
is attempting to exterminate a whole people, we declare that, when the war is over,
it shall be the common purpose of civilized mankind to right this cruel wrong insofar
as may be in our power, and, above all, to enable large numbers of the survivors to
reconstruct their lives in Palestine where the Jewish people may once more assume
a position of dignity and equality among the peoples of the earth.
"Our government may be assured that in continuing the traditional American
policy in favor of so just a cause, it can rely upon our individual support and the
approbation of the American people."
This declaration of "The Common Purpose of Civilized Mankind" remains what
the second portion of its title asserted: "A Traditional American Policy."
Congress has never deviated from this policy. All of our Presidents from Wilson
onward have endorsed that policy. The overwhelming majority of our Congress
adheres to -this program. It is reaffirmed as part of basic American interests.
Would that all the critics could read the 1942 statement in this period of
crisis. It is as timely today, as a reaffirmation of Zionist libertarianism as it was more
than 30 years ago.
See editorial in this issue, contrasting Andrei Gromyko's Roles in 1947 and today
Sinai and the Colonel Meinertzhagen Letter of 1919 to David Lloyd George on the Crucial Issues
Vast Sinai Peninsula Area
Controversial, Not Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula, controversial, now the subject of ne-
gotiations in the sensational Kissinger-engineered agree-
ment for disengagement of Egyptian-Israeli troops, con-
tinues to be an area with interesting historic backgrounds.
Sinai has never been Egyptian. The area was acquired
after the armistice concluded between Israel and Egypt
in 1948.
Now Sinai has acquired special significance, as a stra-
tegic spot in the Middle East and because of the oil field
Israel gained from the Six-Day War. It is estimated that
Sinai oil output has increased since then and is providing
Israel with most of her oil needs.
There is an added significance to the Sinai that was
emphasized immediately after the issuance of the Balfour
Declaration by a highly informed British military author-
ity
Col. Richard Meinertzhagen, who was a member of the
staff of General Edmund Allenby, who defeated the Turks
in World War I and captured Jerusalem, wrote an impor-
tant memorandum, March 25, 1919, to the then Prime
Minister David Lloyd George, who headed the British gov-
ernment when the Balfour Declaration was issued. (The
late Col. Meinertzhagen, who was among the leading Brit-
ish Christian pro-Zionists, revealed many of the intrigues
involving the pledges to the Jews in his "Middle East
Diary 1917-1956"). In that memo to Lloyd George Meinertz-
hagen wrote:
My Dear Prime Minister,
You asked me yesterday to send you an unofficial
letter on the subject of the sovereignty of Sinai. I regard
this question as supremely important—not at he moment
but in years to come.
We are very wise in allowing the Jews to establish
their national home in Palestine; we have also freed
the Arabs from the Turkish yoke and we cannot forever
remain in Egypt. This peace conference has laid two
eggs — Jewish nationalism and Arab nationalism; these
are going to grow up into two troublesome chickens .. .
In 50 years time, both Jew and Arab will be ob-
sessed with nationalism, the natural outcome of the
President's self-determination. Nationalism prefers self-
government, however dishonest and inefficient, to gov-
ernment by foreigners however efficient and beneficial.
Nationalism moreover involves freedom of the State but
ignores the freedom of the individual . . .
A national home for the Jews must develop sooner
or later into sovereignty; I understand that this natural
,evolution is envisaged by some members of H.M.G.
Arab nationalism will also develop into sovereignty from
Mesopotamia to Morocco.
Jewish and Arab sovereignty must clash. The Jew.
if his immigration program succeeds, must expand and
that can only be accomplished at the expense of the Arab
who will do his utmost to check the growth and power of
a Jewish Palestine. That meads bloodshed.
The Britis'h position in the Middle East today is
paramount; the force of nationalism will challenge our
position. We cannot befriend both Jew and Arab. My
proposal is based on befriending the people who. are
more likely to be loyal friends—the Jews; they owe us
2—Friday, Jan!Jary 25, 1974 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
a great deal and gratitude is a marked characteristic
of the race .. .
Palestine is the cornerstone of the Middle East;
bounded on two sides by the desert and on one side by
the sea, it possesses the best natural harbor in the East-
ern Mediterranean; the Jews have moreover proved their
fighting qualities since the Roman occupation of Jeru-
salem. The Arab is a poor fighter though an adept at
looting, sabotage and murder.
I now come to Palestine's position vis-a-vis Egypt.
The Egyptians, even with superior numbers, are no
match for an inferior Jewish army. But as modern
weapons—tanks and aircraft—develop, offensive power
rests more and more on weapon proficiency than on
human bravery and endurance. That is why I regard
Egypt as Palestine's potential enemy.
With Jewish and Arab nationalism developing into
sovereignty and with the loss of the Canal in 1966 '(only
47 years hence) we stand a good chance of losing our
position in the Middle East. My suggestion to you yester-
day is a proposal to make our position in the Middle
East more secure.
Previous to 1906, the Turkish-Egyptian frontier ran
from Rafa in the north to the neighborhood of Suez. The
whole of Eastern- and southern Sinai was part of the
Hedjaz province of the Ottoman Empire. In October
1906, Egypt was granted administrative rights in Sinai
up to a line drawn from Rafa to the head of the Gulf
of Aqaba, Turkey expressly retaining the right of sov-
ereignty. General Allenby with British forces, unaided
by the Egyptian Army, conquered and occupied Turkish
Sinai which, by right of conquest, is at Britain's disposal.
This bare statement can be verified by the Foreign
Office.
If Britain annexes Turkish Sinai, the following ad-
vantages accrue:
1. It establishes a buffer between Egypt and Palestine.
2. It gives Britain a strong foothold in the Middle East
with access to both the Mediterranean and the Red
Sea.
3. It gives us room for a strategic base and, with Jewish
consent, the best harbor in the Eastern Mediterranean.
4. It not only places us in a position whence we can
frustrate any Egyptian move to close the Canal to
British shipping, but it enables us to build a dual
canal connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.
5. No question of nationalism can arise in Sinai, as its
nomad inhabitants are but a few thousand.
Note some of the comments in that 55-year-old mem-
orandum; there is something prophetic in it and about it.
(Someone has anonymously circulated recently a
would-be excerpt from Meinertzhagen's writings that gives -
the impression that he was anti-Zionist. It could have been
taken out of context. It is not true that he was unfriendly
to Jews. Ori the contrary, he, Wyndham Deeded and a
handful more in the British administrative ranks in Pal-
estine defied the anti-Semites and protected the Jewish
position as much as they could at the time).
It will be noted in the just-quoted Meinertzhagen mem-
orandum that he was prophetic. He had a vision for the
future, 55 years ago, that would have been applicable
today had not the anti-Zionists betrayed the British trust
and the pledge to Jewry.
Brandeis U. Given Theresienstadt Documents
WALTHAM, Mass. — Nine
hundred 'pages of original
German high command doc-
uments dealing with Jews at
Theresienstadt, Czechoslo-
vakia, during World War II,
have been presented to
Brandeis University.
that the Goldscheider's could
not know they were progress-
ing through a system that
would see 6,000,000 Jews
annihilated by the end of the
war. Yet, they sensed the im-
portance of what was happen-
ing to them at Theresienstadt.
The gift was made by Mrs.
Emma Goldscheider Fuchs of
Newton, survivor of the Holo-
caust, who was incarcerated
in the camp together with her
first husband, Alfred Gold-
scheider, and the couple's
two children, Hanus and Nina.
It was at Theresienstadt, 25
miles from Prague, that tens
of thousands of Jews were
held on their way to Dachau
and Auschwitz. Mr. Gold-
scheider held a minor admin-
istrative post at the partially
self-governing transportation
camp and secreted the docu-
ments as they passed through
his post.
German security was such
Mr. Goldscheider gave the
precious documents to his
wife for safekeeping and told
her that one day they would
be of extreme importance.
Just before the end of the
war, he and his 17-year-old
son, Hanus, were transported
out of Theresienstadt. Emma
Goldscheider never saw them
again.
Free after the war, she and
her daughter, Nina, who also
survived, meticulously traced
Alfred and Ha nus. They
learned that the father had
been sent to Auschwitz where
he died in a gas chamber
and that Hanus had suc-
cumbed in a hunger camp.
Emma returned home to
Bohemia where she unsuc-
cessfully tried to. reclaim her
factory and business which
had by_that time been appro-
priated by the communists.
Family, friends, home and
wealth gone, she and her
daughter, dressed in bor-
rowed clothing, migrated to
the United States carrying
one package — the docu-
ments from Theresienstadt.
The papers are considered
by Joshua Rothenberg, li-
brarian of the Judaica section
of the Goldfarb Library at
Brandeis, as rare and valu-
able, unique in their chron-
ological completeness.
After those terrible days at
Theresienstadt, Mrs. Fuchs
went to New York, remarried
and with her husband opened
a delicatessen in that city.
At night, she attended courses
at the New School for Social
Research, at the same time
teaching herself English.
Using her new language,
she wrote "Kaleidoscope."
biography which d w e
mainly on carefree earlier
years when she was a young
girl and a happy wife and
mother in Bohemia. A copy
of this biography, in manu-
script form, will be part of
the Goldfarb Library collec-
tion as well.
Widowed once more, Mrs.
Fuchs came to the Boston
area several years ago to be
near her daughter, Mrs. Nina
Ebb, who had become a
teacher. Mrs. Ebb, her hus-
band and their two children
now live in Stratford, Conn.
Still showing the spirit that
brought her through the Holo-
caust, Mrs. Fuchs has re-
mained in the Boston area
where, at the age of 72, she
is 2 third year student of
political science at North-
eastern University.