Purely Commentary
Israeli and . Arab Sentiments Juxtdposed;
World Guilt in Destroyed Peace
Little, if any, consolation is derived from the knowl-
edge that from the earliest days of Israel's existence Jews
pleaded with Arabs for an accord, and the Arab reply
always was "we'll destroy you". In the process of continu-
ing conflict. Israel both regained land to prevent reintro-
duction of a ghetto in their ancient homeland and necess-
ity also compelled creation of a strong military force to
avoid the threatened destruction.
To this day, the contrast continues. Israel pleads for
an accord, Arabs threaten extermination.
The way it began is best illustrated by the attitude of
David Ben-Gurion. On the first anniversary of the death of
the architect of the Jewish state, the views of Ben-Gurion
need to be quoted anew as an indication of the traditional
Jewish attitude. The contrasts in the leaderships of Jews
and Arabs are juxtaposed in these differing views:
"Our basic aim is the destruction of Israel".
—Gamal Abdel Nasser (former president of Egypt)
"Let us learn from our neighbors and insist on
' imparting reliable information on both ourselves and
our neighbors. Mutual acquaintance is a prerequisite
for mutual understanding."—David Ben-Gurion
Interviewer: "What is your policy on Israel?"
Faisal: "The extermination of Israel!"—King Fai-
sal of Saudi Arabia (in a BBC interview)
"In the sphere of our external activities I regard
an agreement with the Arab people as the decisive
political document, the key to all the - political issues
facing the Zionist movement,"—David Ben-Gurion
"The Arab struggle must lead to the liquidation of
Israel." — Houri Boumediene, president of Algeria
"Arabs have dwelt in Eretz Yisrael for hundreds
of years, Arabs whose ancestors were born here and
died here and for whom . Eretz Yisrael is their country
in which they wish to—and shall—live in the future.
We must accept _this fact Willingly and draw all the
necessary conclusions. This is the basis of true under-
.
standing between us and the Arabs.:'
—David Ben-Gurion
"There will be no Jewish survivors in the Holy War
of liberating Palestine." — Ahmed Shukeiry (former
head of Palestinian Terror Organization)
"There is no doubt that the Arab people in Eretz
Yisrael has a right to self determination—a right that is
not limited by or dependent on the consequences of its
impact on us and our cause. It is forbidden to limit
Arab freedom of self determination for,fear that it is
liable to make our work more difficult.. The entire
moral nucleus of the Zionist idea consists of the view
that the people—any people—is an end in itself and not
a means to the ends of other peoples."
—David Ben-Gurion
"The Information Department, of the United Arab
Republic (Egypt) has been able to obtain copies of
"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", the Talmud and
other books . . . The department is now translating
these books into Arabic, French and English in order
to distribute them in African countries . . . The Talmud
says that whoever kills a non-Jew will be admitted to
paradise. The Talmud also permits the stealing of.
Gentile property and attacks upon the honor of non-
Jewish women."—Mohammed Hassenein Heikal (for-
mer editor of Al Ahram and Egyptian minister of
Information and the foremost journalist in the Arab
World before being purged by Saaat.)
"We want for others what we want for ourselves
and we are prepared to give -others what we want
them to give us."—David Ben-Gurion.
"Which Israel? The country that has no borders?"
— PLO representative's response at the UN to an
American's question of whether the PLO would ever
recognize Israel.
There is hardly any difference between the earliest
Israeli setiments and the Arab antagonisms and those of
the two kindred but embattled nations today. The tragedy
lies in the hopelessness of an accord. The guilt can be
.directed even more at the hypocrisy of the nations of the
world which would just as soon subscribe to the destruc-
tion of Israel rather than sacrifice a drop of oil or a
single ,gold coin from Arab bank deposits. This is the
primary disgrace of the age.
.Y
Pot-pourri . . .
A notworthy comment about a courageous German
comedian who dared ridicule the Hitlerites on their own
ground, in their very presence, must be preserved as a
tribute to the entertainer who has earned glory. In a letter
in the Sunday arts section of the N. Y. Times, Leonard
Mosley, St. Paul-de-Vence, France, wrote:
In his interestineharkback to Berlin's cabarets in
the 1920s ("Are We as Nude, Even Lewd, as Brazen
Old Berlin?", Oct. 27), Percy Knauth writes about
"that most prominent of literary and political cabarets,
the Kabarett der Komiker," and infers that it was
swept away with the rest when the Nazis came into
power in 1933.
In fact, the Kabarett der Komiker survived until
World War II began in 1939, and not becadse it knuc-
kled under to Hitler's bully boys. It survived because
of the determination and indestructibility of its resi-
2—Friday, Nov. 22, 1974
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Jewish Experiences in Revival . . . Reconstructed
Nazi Sentiments Meet Their Challenge Now, While
Duties from Nehemiah's Time are Evidenced Anew
By Philip
Slomovitz
The Plow and the Sword: The Eternal Duty to Defend Israel's Life
For the Jews, not only the clock but the calendar, the pages of millennial historical records, have been
turned back as an experience of horror for this generation.
In the United Nations, the diplomatic traditions have been scrapped and human values are now relegated
to the jungle. It is needless to repeat that the inhumanities recorded there are putting to shame even the most
cruel episodes of the Middle Ages.
The experience at Duke University, where a stupid military man spoke of Jewish control of the press, the
banks and the government, was reminiscent of the days that preceded the Holocaust, on the eve of the wholesale
slaughter of Jews, when Streicher's Voelkischer Beodachter portrayed men like Einstein as hooknosed crooks
and rulers of the world. While murdering Jews, they were accusing them of dominating their destinies. That's
how the Russian Czars acted. This was Nazism. That's how, through the ages, Jews were vilified and humiliated.
The ignorant Brown outburst was a reminder of the Jews, in the early days of Hitlerism, turning
the pages of Streicher's filthy Beobachter. A fellow traveler on the tramway where he was reading the
rag asked how he could possibly even touch the filth-dispensing hate sheet, and the explanation came:
"Why should I read the Juedishe R.unrshau? It tells me about pogroms, the Nazi threats to annihilate
me, the humiliations to which I have already been subjected. But in Streicher's Beodachter I read Jews
own the press, that I dominate over mankind's destinies, that I rule the world's banking and the demo-
cratic governments. Why should I dislike that?"
This is not a time for punning. In the present crucial periods in history, while recognizing that the ful -
nations of a Royal Oak priest are being reiterated by a U.S. government official and the horrors of the Midi.
Ages are in revival, the elements who are conscious of what is happening to mankind must be alerted to prevei
the threatened tragedies, the near-holocaustian horrors that may 'affect all mankind.
A practical question can be posed: why worry about a general when so many in the media are either,
venemous or as lacking in knowledge? One commentator dared in a time of crisis, to equate the PLO with the
Irgun. Robert St. John replies to that venom in a strong letter appearing in this issue.
Eric Severeid . had the audacity to be so venomous as to imply that Gen. Brown spoke only half the truth,
intimating that Jews control even more than the chief of staff chairman suggested. Some one should call him
to task. (Our defense agencies did a lot of protesting—what is being done to put Severeid on the carpet?) Presi-
dent Ford may be annoyed with the Jews: how else is he to be judged in his mild treatment of an anti-Semitic
general? The battle for truth goes on. The courageous are put to the the test.
Meanwhile, Jews are especially, under challenge. The terror, the hatred, the ignorance is placed on the world
agenda.
Israel is in trouble, as is all mankind, but Israel has few friends among the nations of the world and must
struggle to overcome every emerging danger.
The Christians who have spoken in Israel's behalf will not be forgotten. They are the hasidei umot ha-
olam, the saintly in mankind.
The battle for survival, for self-respect, for dignity, is primarily Israel's. As in the days of old, in the era
of Nehemiah, Jews continually hold plow in one hand, sword for defense in the other. As stated in Nehemiah:
Everyone with one of his hands wrought in his work, and with the other held his weapon.—Nehemiah 4:11
In Israel, Jews have this means of resorting to self-defense. In the Diaspora, where an ignorant general
gets his proper rebuke and then must be permitted to retain his military rank, the libertarian elements must keep
both areas, where the sword is essential to the plow, resorting to the word of honor and to be civilized.
And in free lands, where truth is so difficult to attain, the struggle goes on and on 'and on. Those who do not
abandnn, these rights will have a clear conscience and will find history glorifying their honor and quest for
self-respect.
should fight slavery are more anxious for additional oil
dent comedian, Werner Finck, whose specialty was
drops. That's the liquid that is now demolishing civilization.
making fun of the Nazis. The first time I saw his act,
in 1938,, he came onto the tiny stage and lifted his
From London comes an ecclesiastical message that
hand in a Nazi salute and said: "That's how high my gives enthusiastic comfort to gamblers. Dr. John Hapgood,
dog can jump." He , would close his act by saluting bishop of Durham, England, is reported to be strongly in
once more and saying: "Heil . . . er . . . now what is
favor of casino gambling. He said in a dioscean letter:
that fellow's name?" In between he would tell the "Gambling might give those whose lives are very dull, and
latest jokes that were going around Berlin about the whose prospects dim, something to dream about. What's
Nazi leaders.
more, it would be wrong, 'and socially dangerous, to try to
It was no moment for a comedian to make a career remove such a source of excitement." -
out of satirizing Hitler and his gang, and Finck was
If the bishop were 'a rabbi his ecclesiastidal dictum
beaten by Brownshirt strongmen and jailed for "in-
might be judged as a Desponsum. Then it might reopen the
sulting" the Fuehrer. But he bounced -back with
rabbinical debate on gambling and give comfort to the
Brechtian braggadocio, and continued to mock the men
expanded trend of bingo in the synagogue. Perhaps this
who ran the Third Reich.
is another way of gambling for inter-faith accord.
Finek emerged again after the war and lived to
make monkeys out of pompous occupation officials and
An interesting article about the Lubavitcher Hasidim
New Germans, as well as • neo-Nazis, but diet (I
in the magazine section of New York Times includes a
always think) of a broken heart when he realized that reference to the Satmar Rebbe and his followers. It makes
no one got mad at him any more.
public anew a position that has caused so much damage
that the Satmar attitude must not be overlooked.
In the consideration of the issue involving defiance of
The author of the New York Times article, Ray
brutality, the case of Werner Finck is a point to be noted.
There were Germans who defied the Fuehrer and his Schultz, commenting on the "esoteric lore" of the Hasidim
states:
cohorts and they give credence to the claim that not all
"Unlike the Satmar Rebbe, who preachs against Zion-
GermanS were murderers. For providing a modicum of
ism, Rabbi Schneerson (the Lubavitcher) supports the
respect for their nation, such resistors of inhumanities earn
Jewish state, and connects the well-being of Jews through-
a place in mankind's hall of fame.
*
*
out the world to those in the Holy Land (during the war
last year, he remarked privately that Israeli forces should
A Manchester Guardian expose reveals that young
take Damascus)."
girls are lured into signing for jobs as barmaids in'Arab
In newspaper ads and pamphlets the Satmar venom
countries and they are eventually unable to • return home
against Israel earned revulsion. None have been more
freely. The alluring offers turn into unexpected submission
to slavery. Perhaps this revelation will serve as a reminder embarassed by what has been described as "The Satmar
Jewish anti-Semitism" than the orthodox elements in
that the slave trade is still active in some of the countries
to which unsuspecting girls are being lured. But those who American Jewry.
Election Candidates Supported Israel in Poll
According to a story in "Near East Report," a pre-
election poll of Senate and House candidates conducted
by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) indicates that bipartisan support of Israel will
be maintained in the 94th Congress.
By overwhelming majorities, candidates favored
continued economic military aid to Israel and unequivo-
cally opposed supplying sophisticated military hardware
to the Arab states. Most - candidates also opposed in-
creased economic assistance to the Arab states.
The oil shortage and King Faisal's threats have not
resulted in any diminution of Israel support. On the
contrary, candidates emphasized that the United States
must not buckle under to blackmail. One candidate
said: "No oil blackmail. We must develop alternate
energy sources here and we must conserve."
Candidates , endorse "Project Independence" and
point to solar, coal and nuclear power as potential oil
substitutes. Not a single candid'ate urged the cooling of
U.S.-Israel friendship in exchange for oil.
In response to the specific poll queries, 86 per c
of respondents join Israel in her demand for a peace
settlement through direct negotiations; 3 per cent look
to a big-power solution; and 10 per cent are uncertain.
Eighty-eight per cent favored the continued transfer
of U.S. arms to Israel to maintain her deterrent capacity;
2.5 per cent are against it; and 9 per cent are uncertain.
Ninety-six per cent want to continue economic aid
to Israel; • 1.6 per cent say no; and 2.8 per cent are
uncertain.
Eighty-nine per cent believe that any Middle East
peace must- provide for a Suez Canal that is open to all
nations—including Israel; 3.5 per cent would allow Egypt
to do with it what she pleases; and 6 per cent are
uncertain.
Eighty-eight per cent believe that Jerusalem must
remain united and open to all faiths as she has been
since June 1967; b less than 1 per cent were opposed.