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.