Purely Commentary
Another Myth . . . About Jews (Zionists) and
Commendable Israel Scholarship,
Plans for Diplomatic Dictionary,
Dr. Marwick's Pioneering Work
Scholarship continues to flourish in Israel, providing
encouragement that a tragic war has not suppressed
desires to pursue scientific research, to continue work
for human improvement, to advance language studies
and other positive programs for the elevation of the
cultural-spiritual ambitions of the Jewish state.
Of interest, therefore, is the announcement from Bar-
Ilan University, which has emerged as one of the great
schools of higher learning, that it will soon publish a
dictionary "containing the language of diplomacy in
Hebrew and English." A news release announces the
authorship of the planned dictionary and its purposes,
as well as the background of such needs and etymolog-
ical undertakings, and states:
The new dictionary, intended to serve the Israel for-
eign office, its diplomatic corps, the press and the inter-
national relations faculties at Israel's universities, is
being prepared under the supervision of Dr. Pinhas La-
pide, head of Bar-Ilan's newly created department of
translation and interpretation. Dr. Lapide, who has served
for 11 years in Israel's diplomatic service and the gov-
ernment press information office, is the author of several
books on contemporary history.
"Since there are few sources available for the lan-
guage of diplomacy in the Bible or in contemporary He-
brew literature, the authors of the new dictionary intend
to search the files of the Israel foreign office for the
development of new terminology since the establishment
of the state and especially the files of the late Moshe
Sharett, Israel's first foreign minister, (later its prime
minister), who was an expert linguist and Hebraist. The
dictionary will be printed in both Hebrew-English and
English-Hebrew editions.
"The new department of translation graduates its first
class of qualified translators and interpreters this sum-
mer."
With fullest regard for the commendable initiative
claimed by the Bar-Ilan authorities it is necessary to
indicate an exaggeration in claims that the planned dic-
tionary is "the first of its kind." That's not so. In 1957,
the eminent Hebrew scholar, Dr. Lawrence Marwick,
head of the Hebraic section of the Library of Congress,
published such a work. It is undoubtedly available and
is entitled "A Dictionary of Diplomatic Hebrew." It is
subtitled "Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew Vocabu-
laries, Abbreviations, Bilingual List of Diplomatic Or-
ganizations."
The creation of Dr. Marwick will be more fully ac-
cepted and deservedly appreciated in a study of this
reproduction from his notable work:
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miscellaneous provisions
Is it safe to say, as an admonition to Bar-Ilan schol-
ars, that ein hadashot—that there is nothing new under
the sun?
To the credit of the new experimenters it should be
An impending impeachment, a contributory factor to
a tragic era in history, is accompanied by many equally
distressing developments. One is the emergence of a sen-
sational rabbi (has he ever been ordained, asks a much
more prominent clergyman), who has won notoriety with
his successes in arranging many public functions in de-
fense of Richard 'M. Nixon. Others are the rightists who
were to have been expected to support the President but
for them even the ultra-conservative chief of state, is
too radical. And there have been many other occurrences
to 'give the matter a bit of Jewish posturing—remote as
that fortunately is from direct involvement in the 'horrible
presidential involvement.
Somebody always manages to drag in the Jew into
every conceivable and non-conceivable situation. (Remem-
ber "The Jew and the Elephant" satire?) Proof, curious-
ly, comes in an article by C. L. Sulzberger from Taif,
Saudi Arabia. (Miracle of miracles! A Jew permitted
to dip his pen into ink in a land which was barred to
Jews until Jewish newsmen compelled Secretary of State
Henry A. Kissinger to consider them part of his entourage
when he himself, a Jew, went on a U.S. mission to that
oil-soaked Jew-hating country!)
It is from Sulzberger that it became known, from
his Saudi Arabian-produced essay in the New York Times,
July 24, published under the title "Watergate, Kremlin,
Zionism," that:
"In this distant oil treasury, where a monarchic gov-
ernment 'is just emerging from an astonishing strict and
puritanical feudalism based upon fundamentalist inter-
pretations of Islam's scriptures, Watergate is seen as
something wholly different. Together with what is re-
garded as a conspiracy to oust Henry Kissinger from the
State Department, it is interpreted as a deliberate plot.
"This, one hears, was conceived and managed by
Soviet Communism and Israeli Zionism. Why? To wreck
a United States government that is genuinely seeking
Middle East peace by forcing the Israelis to abandon all
territory acquired since the outbreak of the Six-Day War
in 1967 and to acknowledge the rights of Palestinian
Arabs.
"Of course, to Americans, the whole idea seems
ludicrous. It is considered 'absurd enough that anyone
should conceive of Communism and Zionism as allies
since the former continually hammers the latter and the
Soviet and Israeli governments obviously detest each
other. That the two should join in trying to overthrow
the U.S. administration from within, linking President
Nixon and Mr. Kissinger and eviscerating both, tran-
scends ridicule in the land where Watergate reigns su-
preme.
"But this doesn't alter the fact that this is firmly be-
lieved here, starting with King Faisal himself, as that
sovereign made clear to me in a lengthy background
conversation at his summer palace. Moreover, the king
has stressed these views in talks with other visitors, in-
cluding the exceptionally able American Ambassador,
James E. Akins, and it is echoed by many important
Saudi Arabian officials.
"Their conception can be summarized accordingly.
Soviet influence—which is detested in this country, seat
of Mecca and other Islamic shrines—would never have
intruded into the Arab world save for Zionist creation of
Israel.
"But (according to this theory) the two movements
have really been working together. The USSR was not
in the least pro-Arab but simply used Israel as a device
to infiltrate the Middle East. It allegedly sponsored crea-
tion of a Zionist state knowing America would back it
and lose its Arab friends to Moscow.
"Once Washington caught on—and really began to
work for peace by pressuring Israel—the Communists
and Zionists decided to weaken the United States by label-
ing Messrs. Nixon and Kissinger as 'traitors.' That is the
meaning of Watergate and the anti-Kissinger cabal, as
seen through this slanted optic."
And so on, and on, etcetera, etcetera . . . the rest
of the article is immaterial. As long, however, as Sulz-
berger becomes pragmatic and says that to Americans
this type of approach is "ludicrous," one could resort
to a banality and say, "ludicrious, shmudicrous, but
aren't the bigots at work nevertheless?"
said that they are wise in searching for the words of
the late Moshe Sharett, that eminent linguist and charm-
ing personality who mastered the languages he knew. His
records provide a splendid etymological source. And it
is to be acknowledged that the root of all sources for the
planned diplomatic dictionary is, inevitably, Dr. Mar-
wick's. He started on such work early, he completed his
own creative work, and his Hebraic scholarship certainly
elevates him into an authoritative role.
By Philip
Slomovitz
Watergate . . . Fabled by Arabs and Rightists
The fact is that the rightists, the haters,—and now
they become evident in an American involvement as far
as Saudi Arabia!—always utilize the nation's tragedies
to drag in the Jew. In a splendid analysis of "Jewish
Concerns About the Watergate Crises," done for the
American Jewish Committee by Milton Ellerin, there is
this information:
"As anticipated, the anti-Semitic press, limited in
circulation and negligible in impact, did in fact charge
that Watergate was a 'Jewish conspiracy' . . . 'a dia-
bolical plot by Jews to take over the country.' In vary a-
tion of the theme, Watergate was held to be a 'RI
screen for the consolidation of power by the Jewish g_ .
ernmental clique.'
"Never enthusiastic about President Nixon, the pro-
fessional bigots have expressed little interest in impeach-
ment or resignation.
"Parenthetically, the Washington Post has reported
that 'a small number of Arab leaders are firmly con-
vinced that Watergate is yet another Zionist plot aimed
at heading off Middle East peace moves' and that Saudi
Arabia's Faisal has told foreign visitors, 'Zionists are be-
hind all America's current internal problems.'
"The fringes on both ends of the political spectrum
have responded predictably. The extreme left, while favor- -(
ing Nixon's removal from office, attribute responsibility
for Watergate `to the decadence of capitalism' and the
`tremendous crisis in the whole U.S. ruling class.'
"Ultra rightists, typified by the John Birch Society, \
have long opposed Nixon as a power hungry politician
bent on becoming 'Emperor of the World' and a willing
tool of a vast international conspiracy manipulated by
`insiders' who even control the Communists. Watergate,
maintain the Birchers, was engineered 'in an effort to
change our form of government. Anti-Nixon to the core,
the Society (if anything) favors resignation or removal
of the President.
"Other extreme rightists blame the derelictions of a
`handful of power-hungry men' and 'amateurs who ran
the Nixon Campaign.' "
The thorough Ellerin analysis of the issue vis-a-vis
Jews and Watergate concludes with this positive assertion:
"There is no factual basis at this writing for a belief
or apprehension that Jews are held to be responsible for
Watergate other than by hard core anti-Semites, nor are
they identified with growing demands for impeachment
or resignation. The country's prevailing mood on Water-
gate and its aftermath seems to be one of placing blame
squarely on the White House. The impeachment and/or -
resignation demands emanate from diverse and respon-
sible sources none of which are identified in the public
mind as having a Jewish component."
Nevertheless, Lawrence Goldberg, who had traveled
in behalf of the Committee for the Re-Election of the
President visited Detroit for that purpose with several
CREEP confreres and also masterminded a meeting of
Jewish journalists at the White House, has been drawn
into the picture. The reference to him has been released
by the House Judiciary Committee, quoting a memo from
John J. Caulfield to John W. Dean III. But its is a more;
or less innocuous portion of the entire scandalous record
of political indecencies.
The Jewish involvement in the present impeachment
process is now only minimal: it is really non-existent. Two
and a half Jewish congressmen—Rep. William S. Cohen's
mother is not Jewish—voted with the 27 for Nixon's im-
peachment. There were no Jews in the pro-Nixon voting)
group of 11. That could be interpreted by anti-Semites
as unanimous Jewish sentiment: not an unusual trick.
One fact stands out and needs to be repudiated. The
have:
defenders of the president (and many Israel
stael-
adopted that attitude) claim that Nixon is
rescuer. Of course, he has been and is Israel's friend.
That does not justify adopting him as the one and only
angel of justice. The position of Israel merits defenst
from all Americans on an humanitarian basis and in
support of American, not Nixon alone—policy. Therefore
the defenders of Nixon are rendering an injustice when
they describe Jews as a people obligated to be pro-Nixoi,
because of Israel. That's a sham, a bad political and his-
torical approach, and should never have been condoned.
This commentator rejected it when Rabin was Israel's
ambassador and he rejects it now.
Outrages were committed in Washington. Congress i
asked to punish the chief executive as primarily re-
sponsible for "the gang" that caused it all. There wig'
be punishment. The U.S. Senate may not convict. Time
will tell. But justice will have been done even with th(
total exposing of actions that were impermissible in thi:
great land. This country's record has been besnircher'
A new era of justice and political decency should be
awaiting us immediately.
2—Friday, August 2, 1974 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEW'