Purely Commentary

The Mideast Muddied Peace Claims

Now the Nixon-Kissinger mission, the visits to the
Arab countries, in addition to Israel, can be better under-
stood. It was a glorified spectacle, and Watergate was
overshadowed temporarily by the glamor of mass demon-
strations. The President kept speaking of peace, and he
returned home with enthusiasm for an impending accord.
What had not been emphasized sufficiently was that while
the world leaders were hugging the President of the United
States, wherever he was he kept hearing threats to Israel.
Now the realists are speaking more frankly. Israel
Prime 'Minister Yitzhak Rabin is less confident of an early
peace. Arabs keep demanding further withdrawals by Is-
rael, Fatahland is training terrorists—it's all in the spirit
of enmity toward Israel.
Israel is threatened in the process, and there are
warnings of a new war if Israel doesn't stop shelling the
terrorist shelters in Lebanon. Not a word from the same
quarters to the terrorists to stop planning attacks on
women in factories, children in schools, Israelis of all
ages in apartment houses. All of which spells out one
basic fact: Israel can't permit terrorism to continue and
the lives of her citizens to be unprotected. Therefore, the
attacks on Fatahland will continue, and the Arabs who
have regained land they lost in the Yom Kippur War will
be brazen again.
Arabs and pro-Arabs have demanded that Israel end
the raids on terrorist havens in Lebanon; but not once,
from any Arab country, has there been a rebuke to the
murderers of children—that's how the terrorists conduct
a war!—and to those who invade homes of civilians, as,
they did again on Monday in Nahariya. How can Israel
relax retaliations when the menace stems from insane
murderers?
That's how it works—in a situation that permits the
losers to claim victory and to demand that the victors
should sue for peace.
An American populist, a longshoreman who has
gained fame as a wholesome philosopher—Eric Hoffer-,
summarized the existing developing events with a declara-
tion that ISRAEL MUST LIVE when he wrote:
The Jews are a very peculiar people: things per-
mitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands,' even millions,
of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did
it; Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey drove
out a million Greeks and Algeria a million French-
men; Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many
Chinese—and no one says a word about "refugee."
But in-the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have
become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel
must take back every single Arab. Victors must sue
for peace.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield
dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it
must sue for peace. Everyone expects the -Jews 'to
be the only real Christians in this world.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel sur-
vives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts, and
Jewish resources. Yet, at this moment Israel is our
only reliable and unconditional ally. And one has
only to' imagine what would have happened had' the
Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to
realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America
and the,West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me: as
it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should
Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us. ISRAEL
MUST LIVE
If this philosopher Eric Hoffer is read as widely as
he deserves, there will be much benefit from what he has
written. It will be recognized that in a battle for life there
is need for friends, and Israel needs all who can be mus-
tered by an appeal like Hoffer's.
*

.

The Russian Confrontation

Now we have a new chapter in Jewish dilemmas. How
are the Nixon-Kissinger detente tactics to be treated? Are
the Russian Jews who are demanding action and who are
and have been critical of the U. S. White House and State
Department approaches deluded or are they the practical,
courageous and determined battlers for justice who refuse
to be deluded?
A group of dissident Russian Jews has charged that
on previous occasions the President has failed to act in
behalf of the oppressed, and their current appeal is:
"Please do not help your partners in the Moscow talks to
make our difficult situation an unbearable one."
This compels recapitulation of preceding experiences
and resort to earlier records to show how the waters have
been muddied.
On July 6, 1974, the responsible and authoritative
Science magazine, under the heading "Brezhnev Feasts:
Scientists Fast," in an article initialed "D. S.," stated:
While Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev and Pres-
ident Richard Nixon were alternately toastin:; each
other and signing accords, seven Soviet scientists who
had had their applications to emigrate to Israel de-

2—Friday, June 29, 1974

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

The Rhetoric About Peace When All That is Heard
Is Threat to Israel's Existence . . . New Challenge
to Nixon on Detente and the Current Russian Visit

nied, went on a hunger strike lasting 14 days. In a
statement designed to coincide with the publicity given
to the summit meetings in the United States, the sci-
entists said, "We are glad of East-West contact. . . .
No less than other people, we desire a stable world;
but we do not believe that in our time it can be
achieved at the expense of anybody's human rights."
Citing the problem of Jewish emigration from the
.Soviet Union it concluded: "At the time the two world
leaders sit down at the festival table, those who are
victims of this selection shall begin the ninth day of
our hunger strike."
The scientists included physicists Mark Ya. Azbel,
of the Landau Institute of Theoretical Physics; Moisei
S. Giterman, of the government Committee of Stand-
ards and the Physical-Technical Inititute; Alexander
V. Voronel, also with the Committee on Standards;
and Vladimir L. Roginsky, associated with the State
Committee for the Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy.
The others were Viktor L. Brailovsky, a computer ex-
pftt, and two mathematicians, Aleksandor L. Lunts
and Anatoly S. Libgober. Midway through the strike
Libgober, the youngest, was reported to have been
given an exit visa.
The strike's end coincided with Brezhnev's depar-
ture from the United States. Before it was over, how-
ever, the fasting scientists disputed an issue that has
come up previously in the case of Benjamin Levich,
another of Russia's ° most prominent scientists who
has been denied an exit visa: whether previous em-
ployment in secret government installations is an
actual or false excuse by the ,Soviet authorities for
prohibiting scientists from emigrating, The New York
Times reported on June 22 that the six senior scien-
tists had worked at institutions considered "sensitive"
by Soviet authorities.
In one of their frequent telephone conversations
to the West, the fasting group denied that they had
engaged in secret research or that it is a valid reason
for the authorities' denial of their exit visas. Since
applying for visas, all had lost their jobs; but three
of the physicists were reported as spending their time
teaching—by telephonegraduate students in Israel.
Bringing this up to date, here is another important
piece from another responsible magazine, New Scientists,
from its issue of Marph 7, 1974, under the heading "The
Missing Name":
Dismal news of continuing Soviet repression of
those Jewish scientists and technologists who indicate
a desire to leave for Israel still trickles into the West.
Three men are now on hunger strike in Moscow=
David Azbel, a professor of chemistry; Vitaly Rubin,
a specialist in Chinese history and philosophy; and
Vladimir Galatzky, an artist. Dr. Azbel was a victim
of the Stalin purges and spent 16 years in the labor
camps. After Stalin's death he was allowed to con-
tinue his studies and in 1968 became head of the In-
stitute of Chemical Spirits and Organic Products in
Moscow. He was dismissed when he applied to emi-
grate in 1972 and imprisoned for a time after he had
taken nart in a demonstration..
In the case of Academician Benjamin Levich, the
Moscow electrochemist whose stand in defense of hu-
man rights has cost him his career, the authorities
have resorted to the classical technique of Stalin's
day (later copied by the Nazis) of transforming him
into a "non person".
An article by Professor P. P. Schmidt of Oakland
University, Michigan appeared in the Journal of the
Chemical Society. It was reproduced photographically
and circulated in the USSR, but with a significant dif-
ference. In the original Levich's name occurs 28
times, in the Soviet version it is allowed, perhaps in-
advertently, to appear once.
New Scientist's comment was accompanied by an ex-
cerpt to show how the Jewish scientist's name was omitted
deliberately.
They are not minor incidents. They corroborate the
warnings of Senator Henry W. Jackson and others who
warn against the present detente methods and who keep
pleading the cause of Russian Jewry.
That is why the Russian Jews' appeals, accompanied
by charges of inactivity, are valid. That's why American
Jews have cause to be concerned.
There is skepticism over the results of the great
peace mission of the Middle East. Similar skepticism
marks the Russia tour.
A Kissinger assurance of a 45,000-a-year emigration
grant by Russia per year was immediately clouded by
the arrests of Russian Jews who had begun their protests
against the oppressive measures taken by the Kremlin.
If the .Russian word is to be believed and the trans-
mission of good will through Nixon and Kissinger con-
sidered seriously, there will have to be outright, direct
action to allay fears engendered until now.
The Russian tactics have not inspired faith in the
Kremlin. The USSR role in threatening Israel's existence
has not contributed toward confidence in detente. The
position of Israel is precarious. It is equally important to
save the honor of this country while dealing with the
tricky Russian detente.

—

.

By Philip

Slomovitz

Is Russia planning resumption of diplomatic relations
with Israel as a method of hurdling the obstacles to the
special privileges the USSR seeks in trade relations with
this country? The proof will be in actions—both the free-
dom of emigration for Jews and abandonment of the
destructive policies - toward Israel.
Russia has much to prove. President Nixon has a
great deal to counteract. Detente is being tested. The
honor of this country is as much at stake as the security
Of Jews and of Israel.

The 'Strictly Jewish' Politics
• It's becoming a dignified and -respectable game-

politics—even if petition candidates in the United Hebrew
schools should not be accused of having Ulterior motives.
(Parents of school children who show an interest in their
'schools should not be accused of having ulterior motives.
If parents' interest in their children's educational status
is to be viewed as being motivated' ulteriorly, then more
power to the ulterior motivated!) _
There is really nothing wrong with pressuring, if it is
*for improvement and to create community commitment.
Sometimes there is the wish that abstainers from public
duties, from philanthropic obligations; could be pressured
to be participants in their people's needs. "Al tifrosh
min haklal," "separate not yourself from community,"
admonish'the sages in Ethics of the Fathers.
Perhaps the duty so to immerse in community af-
fairs is even greater for parents when' their children's
schooling is involved.
It'll be a sad day in the democratic functioning com-
munities when people are told that seeking public posi-
tions as petitioners is criminal. Such degradation must
never be permitted in a wholesome society!
So—allowing for a bad blunder by an official who
should not have abused petition candidates—constituents
should welcome and encourage an interest in politics and
a willingness of people to submit to being petition con-
testants in an election. It's the most wholesome thing
that can happen to a community..

Remembering Florence Cassidy

How quickly people are forgotten! How many re-
member the name of Dr. Florence G. Cassidy? She was
among the very great in the ''''
field of social work. She could
work as amicably with Jews
as with people of her own
faith. Nothing human was
strange to her. She was skilled
in her profession and dedicat-
ed to the basic needs of all the
less fortunate in this corn-
munity.
As secretary of the Michigan
Committee on Displaced Per-
sons and Refugees and the De-
troit Committee on Refugees
she worked closely with the
late Fred M. Butzel and other
dedicated men in this com-
munity.. Her many awards
were well earned and to re-
member_her is a duty resting E:Lia.,%
upon all people of good will.
Dr. Cassidy

Yellin College Early Childhood
Education Model Is Successful.

JERUSALEM—A new and
effective model for early
childhood education in Israel
has been developed at The
David Yellin Hebrew Teach-
ers College here. Now in its
fourth year of operation,' the
project has become the focus
of attention by ministry of
education supervisors, school
principals and teachers work-
ing throughout Israel.
The current education re-
form program recommended
that various forms of educa-
tion be tried in the lower
grades so as to develop those
appropriate to the particular
needs of Israeli education.
The college project has suc-
cessfully explored the possi-
bilities of blending the best
elements in nursing and kin-
dergarten education with that
of the lower grades of the
elementary school.
The educational unit de-
veloped at the college is
comprised of nursery, kin-
dergarten, first and second
grades which work together
as an integrated unit.

This project is directed by
a team of specialists' consist-
ing of the college faculty,
master teachers of the uni'
and the senior students i,
the college who are special-
izing in early childhood edu-
cation.

The project includes a new
physical organization of the
classrooms with more flex-
ible uses of both space and
equipment; new organization
of the students, learning in
small groups and as indi-
viduals; new focus and selec-
tion of curriculum content
and organization of time in
planning and scheduling ac-
tivities and programs.
An important function of
the project unit is that it
serves all classes of the col-
lege teacher training pro-
gram as a place for observa-
tion. For the teachers of
other schools in Jerusalem
and outside, the unit is a
demonstration center in
which to observe new de-
velopments.

