Purely Commentary
POWs and the Syrian Attitudes:
One Refutation of Mistreatment
In the eight months of Israel's difficulties with the
Syrians, the tragedy of the prisoners of war was a major
concern. The cruelties that occurred, the torture of
Israelis, the inhuman murders of a number of them,
were well established.
Then came the exchange of prisoners, and once again
the Syrians made fantastic claims, charging mistreat-
ment of their soldiers by Israel. It was grist for the pub-
licity mills. How were some of the falsehoods to be
proven?
One such false claim of alleged mistreatment of the
Syrians is contained in a denial by Ed Defortains of the
Group W News, who, on a CBS Network broadcast stated:
"At least one of the Syrian officers who claims
he was mistreated in Israeli hospitals while he was
a prisoner of war has a short memory about much of
what was done to save his life after his helicopter
crashed on the Golan Heights.
"Colonel Atnin El Kidar now claims that he am-
putated one leg himself with an axe when his helicopter
crashed, but, he told me at an Israeli military hospital
during the war that he could remember nothing after
being shot down. He also told me of the kindness of a
British civilian doctor who was working at a town near
the border.
"The 37-year-old colonel told me that this British
doctor was like a brother, and that, after amputating
both legs, came to see him and stitched the wounds.
"Now, though, the Syrian Colonel, says that his
left leg could have been saved, that it was just an ankle
injury. I remember that both his legs were crushed
and he told me and a group of British reporters that he
owed his life to this doctor. Much of the conversation
was conducted without any Israelis listening. They had
gone to another room. Furthermore, it was explained
to the colonel that we had no axe to grind and if he
did not want to talk that was un-to him. He not only
wanted to talk, he wanted to praise the British surgeon
who amputated his legs."
War prisoners are in themselves a tragic element. in
any war. The conditions accompanying their status should
never be distorted. All wars must end in peace, but at-
titudes such as have developed in the Middle East crises
add to bitterness rather than allay fears, suspicions,
animosities.
Who will help solve such problemS, if approach to
normalcy is not,. encouraged by the contending forces?
An Eye-witness Refutation of Syrian Charge That
Israel Mistreated POWs . . . Chuck Stone's Strong
Statement Deploring Africans' Breaks With Israel
Is there any hope for an end to bigotries from the Soviet
Union, which fosters hatred against Israel, or from the
United States, whose concern is a questionable detente?
*
*
African Tragedy vis-a-vis• Israel
Israel tried so hard to befriend the African nations,
and for a time there was such a strongly amicable rela-
tionship that the diplomatic breaks came as shocks and
as great disappointments internationally.
At least one eminent columnist saw through the
blunders of the African states and the regrettable develop-
ments, stemming from Arab pressures, that interrupted
their friendships with Israel. Chuck Stone, a highly
respected black writer, who had been to Isiael and whose
deep study of conditions grants him a measure of author-
ity on the subject, had this to say in one of his recent
columns in the Detroit Free Press:
African nations are belatedly discoviering_ that
they've been had — and had badly — by their Arab
friends who speak with ethnic forked tongues.
The new Kissinger-created detente between Egypt,
Syria and Israel is causing Africans to wonder why
they broke diplomatic relations with Israel in the first
place. Moreover, the Arab countries haven't come
through with the economic benefits promised to the
African nations in return for their action.
Yet, at the meeting of the Organization of African
Unity in Mogadishu, Somailia, African foreign min-
isters voted to accept% paltry 200,000,000 Arab dollars
as booty for collectively going along with Arab ex-
hortations to diplomatically isolate Israel.
The $200,000,000 was the Arab response to African
demands for lower oil prices selectively permitted their
countries: Kenya and Ethiopia strongly rejected the
$200,000,000 tokenism, suggesting that $240,000,000
was a minimum need since African economies have all
been crippled by orbiting oil prices.
This last February, Sudanese Foreign Minister Man-
sour Khaled, chairman of the OAU's oil committee, had
estimated that Africans would pay $1 billion for oil
in 1974 compared with $417,000,000 last year. During
that month, an Arab delegation was touring Africa,
pledging the $200,000,000.
Three months later, the Arabs are just getting
around to making good on their pledge, while hundreds
of thousands of Africans are starving to death in the
Sehelian drought areas in Chad, Mali, Mauritania,
Niger, Senegal and Upper Volta.
Higher oil prices at the height of this human holo-
caust in Africa is a disgustingly lousy price to pay to
prop un Arab egos in their war against Israel.
African nations desperately need Israeli tech-
nology. Moreover, in the last few years, Israel and
By Philip
Slomovitz
Africa had developed a mutually beneficial trade vol-
ume of almost $60,000,000.
But Arab nations wanted to orchestrate an African
bloc of support to intensify world opinion against Israel
and cast Israel in the role of a "colonial" power.
Following last October's Yom Kippur War, Arab
nations escalated their African anti-Israel campaign.
For their individual national reasons, African countries
severed diplomatic ties with Israel.
Destitute Chad and Niger were promised econ 'c
aid from Libya. Senegal's large Moslem population
-Y
sured her president. Prestige-conscious Ethiopia
in because of Arab pressure to move the OAU head-
quarters from Addis Ababa to Cairo.
It now turns out that the African nations who sold
their Pan-African souls for 30 pieces of Arab silver have
been left standing at the economic altar.
Not only did the Arabs fail to come through as
promised and needed, but Egypt and Syria went ahead
and negotiated their own truces with Israel, leaving the
Africans to wonder why they ever went out on the anti-
Israel diplomatic limb.
Another example of Arab forked-tonguing is Saudi
Arabia's involvement with the United Nations Children's
Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Although oil prices have quadrupled in the last year
and astronomical amounts of dollars have flowed into
Arab treasuries, the 16 Mideast Arab nations contri-
buted only $871,000 to UNICEF, while the organization
was pouring $5,400,000 into those same countries.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, con-
tributed a miserly $30,000 to UNICEF a couple of ad-
ministrative salaries) while receiving a bountiful $500,-
000. Even the poverty-stricken atomic power India did
better with '$1,000,000 to UNICEF.
What happened in Mogadishu last week and in
Syria, Egypt and Israel during 33 days in April and May
ought to finally convince African countries that African
national interests are not dependably tied to Arab
interests.
Africans could have checked with the American
Indians who long ago learned that the capacity for
speaking with a forked tongue is a universal disease.
How can the best relations be re-established with
Israel by the Africans? Is there hope for resumption of
friendships under • conditions which also resulting in the
breaking of diplomatic relations with Israel by some Latin
American states, also as a result of pressure from Arabs
bent upon Israel's destruction? What role will the Big
Powers play in creating good will among nations? Is the
hypocrisy that was dominant at the United Nations an
irreconcilable factor in creating international enmities?
How sadly the civilized world has sunk into a cess-
pool of hatreds!
Justified Title: Late Senator Ernest Gruening's Book: 'Many Battles'
(Editor's Note: This re•
view has been in type for
some weeks. Senator Xrnest
Gruening had visited The
Jewish News about the time
his book had come off the
press. The former Alaska
senator passed away on June
26. His obituary is on Page
39 in this issue).
Senator Ernest Gruening
wisely named his autobio-
graphy "Many Battles." It is
just how his life can be de-
scribed—as full of battles—
against the Vietnam war,
having pioneered as a lone
fighter against the American
role; as a physician, news-
paperman, editor, legislator,
the chief 'architect of state-
hood for Alaska, the state
he represented in the U.S.
Senate; and as one of the
chief defenders of Israel.
It is such a glorious story,
markedz by so much courage,
that it is no wonder that the
volume published by Live-
right runs into 550 pages.
Of the many issues in
which he became involved,
his role' in exposing the Arab
propaganda, in arguing for
the protection of the Ameri-
can position in the Middle
East with full support for
Israel, is certainly among the
major aspects of a very in-
teresting 1 if e exceedingly
well described by the hero
himself.
He tells of the support he
2 Friday, July 5, 1974
—
had from Senator Paul Doug-
las in sponsoring an amend-
ment to a foreign aid bill
to provide assistance to Is-
rael, of his plea that the U.S.
stop appeasing dictators, of
the adoption of the amend-
ment by a 35-25 vote, with
Senators Johnson and Mans-
field supporting him, Sena-
tors Fulbright and Dirksen
in opposition. There are these
interesting references to that
debate in 1960:
"In my speech on the Mid-
dle East, I called attention
to the plight of Israel, sur-
rounded by militantly hostile
nations with populations fifty
times as numerous and an
area a thousand times as
great. Yet it remains an oasis
of democracy in a desert of
backwardness ruled by dicta-
tors; Israel alone among the
nations in the Middle East,
embodied the principles of
self-government and freedom
that our nation professes. Its
dedication and determination
were converting their arid
sliver of earth into a civilized
homeland blooming with agri-
culture and flourishing with
small industries. It had es-
tablished new standards of
education, health and wel-
fare in this long-stagnant
backwater, and served a uni-
que role among nations as a
refuge for the persecuted
Jews from other countries.
Why did not the Arab lead-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ers, instead of wasting their
substance in fighting, emu-
late Israel and attempt to
improve the lot of their own
distressed people?
"What I did not know, and
would learn only gradually;
was that the concluding lines
of that amendment, generally
assumed to be necessary to
secure adoption, really de-
natured it. The phrase "as
the President may deter-
mine" meant, of course, that
he might interpret the act
as he wished, not as the Sen-
ate indicated its purpose to
be. And so aid to Nasser
would continue and the ad-
ministration's pious protesta-
tions would again be nullified
by its actions. This steady
encroachment of executive
power upon the legislative,
or rather the steady abdica-
tion by Congress of its pow-
ers to oversee the executive
was of deepening concern to
me."
In 1962, Gruening visited
the Middle East. He met with
Israelis in Israel, with Egyp-
tians in Cairo; he spoke to
Gamal Abdel Nasser who re-
peated to him "the standard
Arab position" of blaming
the Zionists. He makes these
comments regarding his visit
in Israel as well as Arab
divisiveness:
"What we learned on our
trip to the Middle East con-
firmed my opinion. I was im-
pressed by the Shah of Iran,
who was, in effect, leading a
social and economic revolu-
tion in his country "from the
top," and by the young King
Hussein of Jordan, whose
nonviable principality was
sustained largely by Ameri-
can funds in the belief that
it would serve as a buffer
state between Arab extrem-
ists and Israel. The task of
counseling the harried mon-
arch was being admirably
carried out by William Ma-
comber, the chief of mission.
He was hopeful that given a
period of peace our AID pro-
gram would put Jordan on its
feet. But the shadow of
Egypt's ruler, Gamal Abdel
Nasser, was cast over the
whole Middle East. We were
made aware of it in every
country. In Beirut, Charles
Habib Malik, internationally
known Lebanese philosopher
and educator, and his coun-
try's ambassador to the Unit-
ed States from 1945 to 1953,
felt that the United States
was making a fatal mistake
in continuing to support Nas-
ser. Malik said Nasser was
using American funds to stir
up revolt in Lebanon, Syria,
Jordan and elsewhere, and
that our idea of Nasser's in-
dispensability was nonsense.
"In Jerusalem, Abba Eban,
then Israel's Minister of Edu-
cation and truly a statesman,
confessed that his forecast
thirteen years earlier that
time would soften and dimi-
nish Arab hostility was
wrong. In consequence Israel
had to spend a large part of
its revenues for defense, to
the detriment of other worth-
w h i l e activities. Further,
there was no defense agree-
ment between Israel and the
United States; in fact, Israel
was one of the few countries
in the free world not includ-
ed in some mutual defense
pact. Israel was trying to
provide for its own defense,
but American aid to Nasser
was adding to Israel's de-
fense burden, and our recent
recognition of the revolution-
ary regime in Yemen, which
Egypt had been supporting
with its armed forces, was a
great boost for Nasser.
"We had terminated aid to
Israel. However, Levi Eshkol,
the finance minister, indicat-
ed that Israel would welcome
its resumption. Israel pub-
licly acknowledged its debt
to its American benefactors;
no other country we visited-
exhibited a similar expres-
sion of appreciation. In my
view, of all the recipients
of our foreign aid, Israel was
the best qualified to receive
it and had made the best use
of it."
Unhesitant in his criticism
of President Nixon, frank and
emphatic in tackling many
issues, Gruening presents a
picture that reveals the per-
sonality of a brilliant states-
man who, at 86, retains great
power as a political analyst
and vitality as a writer,
speaker, propagator of dem-
ocratic ideas. His "Many Bat-
tles" is a magnificent self-
portrayal by one of the most
distinguished Americans.
London Prepared
for Guerrilla Hit
LONDON — Security was
increased here Saturday to
prevent an attack by Pal-
estinian s guerrillas as the
prime ministers of Singapore,
the Netherlands, Finland
rael and Norway and c
top politicians arrived for a
one-day conference of inter-
national Socialist leaders.
About 1,000 troops guard-
ing Heathrow Airport sealed
off the area with roadblocks
creating traffic jams as
motorists were stopped for
questioning.
Each of the VIPs was met
by police and escorted to
special lounges guarded by
armed troops and armored
cars.
Three days before the
VIPs arrived, soldiers moved
into the airport following a
government report that warn-
ed of the likelihood of a guer-
rilla attack. Prime Minister
Harold Wilson's 700-acre
rural estate, the site of the
conference, also was heavily
guarded.