Writer Advises on Terrorism Rise; Rebukes Leftists for Position on Israel

In an article entitled, "The
Age of Terror," appearing in
the Nov. 29 issue of New
Statesman, writer Paul John-
son admonishes his reader-
ship on the rise of terrorism
while rebuking the leftists-
socialists who he says "claim
the name of socialist, though
it is characteristic of them
that they regard with pecul-
iar detestation the world's
most advanced social democ-
racy, Israel."
His article reads in part:
Step by step, almost im-
perceptibly, without anyone
being aware that a fatal
watershed has been crossed,
mankind has descended into
the age of terror. While we
have taken infinite pains to
avoid the catastrophe of a
thermonuclear war, the inter-
national community has al-
lowed itself to be corrupted
into accepting something
scarcely less horrible: the in-
discriminate murder of the
innocent in the pursuit of
political ends.

posed himself on the Palestin-
ian refugees by fear and
violence is ignored. He had
the indispensable pass-key to
an Assembly mesmerized by
racialism and force: the abil-
ity to kill with impunity.
According to its rules, Ara-
fat has no more place in the
UN than the head of the
Mafia, who can match him in
successful crime and perhaps
has a wider constituency.
But Arafat fits more con-
vincingly in the mythology of
the modern world, which has
replaced negotiation and de-
bate by guns and explosives.

South Africa but applauded
in Uganda; and the fruits of
aggression are denied or
blessed according to the race
and political leanings of
those to whom they accrue.
Thus the UN has become a
kind of kangaroo court; far
from protecting international
order, it undermines it. Not
even the wretched League of
Nations gave a welcome and
a platform to Hitler.

But it is futile to lavish
abuse on the UN; it has no
corporate existence; it is
merely the sum of its parts.
Lawless and tyrannical re-
gimes — and there are now
many scores of them in the
world—will naturally seek to
remold in their own image
any international forum of
which they are members.
Their object is not to uphold
law but to eliminate it.
It is rubbish to suppose
that an organization of over
100 states, each with an
equal vote, will reflect civi-
lized standards. There are
very few. communities in the
world where democracy and
the rule of law still flourish.

And in the UN, of course,
he finds many agents of his
peers: military gangsters and
expert racists, men skilled
in the politics of torture and
butchery, who have devoted
their lives to the destruction
of democracy and the courts.
More and more, the UN be-
gins to resemble, and sound
like, a thieves' kitchen:
Arafat should be at home
there. More to the point is
the question: why do the
powers still attached to civi-
lized standards continue to
Today the civilized powers
give it their countenance?
Here we come to the es- are no less pusillanimous.
sence of the argument. No They have watched impas-

It is now part of the rou-
tine duties of heads of gov-
ernment to negotiate person-
ally with killers, with the ob-
ject of releasing convicted
criminals as expeditiously as
state throughout history has sively while the UN has be-
it can be arranged.

Worse still, terror has been
accorded recognition and
honorable status. The United
Nations, theoretically the
chief custodian of interna-
tional order and - civilized
standards, has extended a
welcome and privileges to
the most active, ruthless and
successful of the terror
gangs, as a preliminary to
giving it full membership.
Its spokesman, the architect
of a thousand crimes, has
been received with howls of
rapture.
Few question the creden-
tials of Arafat and his kill-
ers; the fact that he has im-

had completely clean hands.
What marks the -progress of
civilization is the systematic
recognition of laws, the iden-
tification and punishment of
crime, and the reprobation of
the offender.
The tragedy of the UN is
that the distinctions have
been first blurred, then
wholly abandoned; and that
its judgments are now deliv-
ered not according to any
recognized set of principles,
however inadequate, but sole-
ly in response to the pres-
sures of political and racial
groupings.
Racialism is condemned in

trayed its aims and torn up
its charter. They have made
no effort to ,construct collec-
tive defenses against inter-
national terrorism, to punish
those who practice it and
deter those who give it sanc-
tuary.

The Arab decision to use
the oil weapon to further ter-
rorist aims—the first direct
and unmistakable threat to
the interests of the civilized
powers themselves—was met
with blatant cowardice, total
disunity and panic attempts
to strike unilateral bargains.
There seems, at present, no
principle that the West will

not willingly sacrifice to re-
tain the illusion of economic
security.

There has also been a be-
trayal by the Left. What
should distinguish the Left
is an all-embracing human-
ism, which places the highest
possible value on life and
identifies itself with those so-
cieties striving to preserve
and enrich it.
The Left abandoned its
principles in the 1930s by
deliberately ignoring or dis-
counting the Stalinist terror,
and by defending the debased
form of government which
made it possible. Now it is
committing a new form of the
same treason by endorsing
indiscriminate violence as the
prime weapon of political ac-
tion.
Let us not mince our words
about this. There is now a
growing number of people on
the Left, in this and other
advanced countries, who de-
liberately associate them-
selves with international ter-
rorist groups, with confer-
ences held to promote the
aims of terrorism, with the
supply and manufacture of
explosives, and, above all,
with the ideology of violence.

These people claim the
name of socialist, though it
is characteristic of them that
they regard with peculiar
detestation the world's most
advanced social democracy,
Israel.

(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)

life in his political philosophy
as well. He deplored the "big-
ness" of industry. The "curse
of bigness," he called it. He
thought that small business
was more efficient than the
giant corporation.

mark did it. Finishing his con-
versation, de Hass remarked,
casually, "Your uncle was a
fine Jew."

Probably no member of the
Supreme Court of more re-
cent times is more quoted
than Brandeis. Justice Doug-
las was one of his secretaries
in his younger days.
Brandeis had shown no
Jewish interest until one day
Jacob de Haas, an English
Jew walked into his office.
De Hass was editor of a Bos-
ton Jewish paper. Theodor
Herzl himself had asked • de
Haas to settle in America to
bring the American Jews
Zionism. De Haas had come
to Brandeis to inquire about
some insurance matter.
De Haas didn't know it,
but the day he walked into
that office, he was fulfilling
the mission which Herzl had
imposed on him. A chance re-

brought to the movement
great .prestige. As a leader
his accent was always on the
economic. The rabbis of old
said, "Not the word, but the
deed is important" and that
was the Brandeis thought.
But the world also needs
the word and Stephen Wise
was admittedly a great
preacher, who seemed as pop-
ular with non-Jews as Jews.
One suspects that had he
gone into politics, he might
have been another Bryan. The
Free Synagogue where he of-
ficiated was one of the tour-
ist attractions. His pulpit. was
Carnegie Hall. He had plan-
ned a great new synagogue
but as the plans neared frui-
tion, trouble developed be-
tween Judge Gary, head of
the U.S. Steel Corporation
and the workers, and Wise

Now my good friend, the
erudite Harry Barnard, auth-
or of the "Eagle Forgotten,"
the life story of Illinois' fam-
ed Governor John Altgeld,
He was married to a cousin
has written a biography of a
forgotten eagle, Judge Julian of Felix Adler, the founder of
W. Mack. The book is pub- the Ethical Culture Society.
She wanted him to join that
lished by Herzl Press.

Mack was president of the
Jewish Congress. He was a
member of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for some thirty
years. He was considered for
the Supreme Court. He help-
ed the immortal Jane Adams
found Hull House in Chicago.
He taught at the University
of Chicago and at one time
was one of the trustees of
Harvard. He was a member
of the Jewish delegation to
the Peace Conference after
the first World War. He was
a leader in the Zionist world.

He was one of that galaxy
of American Jewish stars
which • included Brandeis,
Wise, Silver and Lipsky.
Each was different, but the
most different was Brandeis.
Brandeis never owned a car
and never even used a type-
writer, writing all of his let-
ters by hand. He cultivated
a deliberate simplicity of life.
He seemed to go counter to
the whole tendency of modern

Brandeis paused. The uncle
of Brandeis had been Lewis
N. Dembitz, after whom
Brandeis was named. Dem-
bitz was a Kentucky Jew, who
had been a delegate to the
Republican convention which
group, but Brandeis would nominated Abraham Lincoln.
not have it. He didn't believe,
Brandeis' uncle was very
he said, in preaching ethics, much interested in Jewish af-
but in living it. Character, he fairs. He was the author of a
said, is contagious like dis- book on Jewish prayer.
ease.
Brandeis turned Zionist. He

56 Friday, January 24, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

—

course, the tacit approval of
the Left is a direct and pow-
erful incentive to push for-
ward the threshold of vio-
lence.
The truth is that no politi-
cal cause is worth the aban-
donment of elementary moral-
ity. Whether terrorism works
varies with the case, but it
can never serve an ideal.

Writer Hits Arafat's Twisting
of Language to Meet PLO Needs

are sought and stru

BAYARD RUSTIN

Editor's note: Bayard Bus-
tin, executive director of the
A. Philip Randolph Institute,
writes a syndicated column
that appears in leading black
newspapers across the United
States. In the following col-
umn, just released, he dis-
cusses the distortion of lan-
guage that occurs when ter-
rorism is described as "lib-
eration" and cites the sur-
render of "political and
humanitarian principles" im-
plicit in the UN's recognition
of Yasir Arafat and the PLO.

There is complete indif-
ference to the political evolu-
tion of the Arab states—that
is, the progressive elimina-
tion of anyone with a com-
mitment to democracy. Some
of those who form and orga-
nize opinion on the Left are
preparing the ground for the
One of the most distressing
acceptance of Israel's destruc- reflections of the unhappy
tion as right and inevitable. state of world politics is the
More important, in the long ease with which words can be
perverted, stripped of signifi-
cance, and made to mean
their opposite.
took labor's side.
Acts of murder and terror-
"I see my synagogue going ism are transformed into ges-
up in smoke," said Wise, re- tures of "liberation." Hijack-
alizing now that big contri- ing and the slaughter of inno-
butions from the men of cent children are carried out
wealth would not be forth- in the name of "peace." The
coming.
word "racism," once so
Abba Hillel Silver was also meaningful to the oppressed
a man of eloquence. He had of the world, has lost all ob-
been a founder of the first jective value as it is as often
juvenile Zionist group meet- applied to democratic, inter-
ing at the Educational Alli- racial societies as to those
ance on the Lower East Side. which practice the most ex-
Dr. Fleischman, the head, a treme forms of apartheid.
German Jew hostile to Zion-
The distortion of language
ism, s h r i e k e d Hallelujah is, however, but a symbol of
when, outraged, he heard the a fundamental surrendering
boy Zionists speaking Hebrew. of political and humanitarian
For once, in his indignation, principles, typified most dra-
he himself had uttered a He- matically by the warm recep-
brew word.
tion accorded Yasir Arafat
A fight developed between and the Palestine Liberation
the junior Zionists and Organization by the United
Fleischman but the young Nations. For Arafat to have
Zionists prevailed. Abba Hil- shot his way into the General
lel Silver was to close Assembly with a machine
another fight — he made the gun, only to be greeted by an
final speech in the fight at overture of applause, would
the United Nations about the have been almost as ridicu-
establishment of the state of lous — and deplorable — as
Israel.
the cheers which greeted his
In the American Zionist tirade of misrepresentation.
Revolution, the man who
What is, after all, the "le-
wielded the gavel longest was gitimate struggle" Arafat and
Louis Lipsky, who in private the PLO are conducting? It
life was president of an in- is a struggle being waged
surance company. Two thous- with the tactics of calculated
and years of Jewish history violence, where military tar-
showed that the Jewish people gets are avoided, but women,
were in constant danger. Zion- children, athletes, diplomats,
ism was an insurance policy airline passengers — the de-
for a homeless people.
fenseless and uninvolved —

Pioneering Leadership in
i U.S. Zionism Recalled

BY DAVID SCHWARTZ

run, is acceptance that, hi
the pursuit of certain vaguely
defined principles of self-
determination, the end justi-
fies the means, however hor-
rible.
Once the right of the ter-
rorist to kill is conceded
there is no logical point at
which the Left can make a
stand for human life. And, of

What, then, of the
'S
charge that Israel is
a C-
ist" nation. This accUs- 1071
has been repeated so often —
Arafat made numerous refer-
ences to Israeli "racism" and
"colonialism" in his UN ad-
dress — that it has achieved
a measure of acceptance
worldwide, and in the Ameri-
can black community.
The question is what do the
Arabs mean by "racism?"
The standard definition is the
systematic oppression of an
ethnic or racial minority, very
often justified on the grounds
that the minority is inherently
less intelligent, less clean,
less pure or in some way in-
ferior to the majority.
Applying this measurement,
it is apparent that some of the
most blatantly "racist" re-
gimes are in Arab lands. In
Iraq, Jews were hanged in a
public square, while today
napalm is employed against
the dissident Kurdish minor-
ity. Syria rivals Nazi Ger-
many in its brutal treatment
of its Jewish citizens, who
are confined to a cramped
quarter of Damascus, pre-
vented from emigrating, and
from time to time murdered
with official sanction.

I would not pretend that the
racial situation in Israel,
where some 400,000 Arabs live
as citizens, is perfect. But
given the enormous problems
confronting her, this small
nation has achieved a level
of racial tolerance that is in-
deed remarkable.

The Arabs within Israel en-
joy rights and a standard of
living unknown to the masses
in Moslem nations. They par-
ticipate politically; elect their
own representatives to par-
liament; receive public edu-
cation; and belong to Histad-
rut, the Israeli labor federa-
tion. They are, in other words,
a part of the progressive in-
stitutions of Israeli society.
I believe that the Palestin-
ian people have the right to
a homeland, to self-determin-
ation, to the resolution of their
state of uncertainty.
Jewish people, historically
oppressed people, have the
same right. And given the
rhetoric and actions the
PLO, there can be litt.L .oubt
that to accede to the demand
of a bi-national state would
result in the Jews of Israel
being dealt with much like
the Jews in Iraq and Syria.
In her brief history, Israel
has forged an enviable record
of social achievement. At a
time when so many appear
willing to accept lies as the
truth, to reach dishonest con-
ciliation with terrorists, to
barter away the most basic
ideals of justice and compas-
sion, Israel more than ever
deserves the sup port of
people of good will and com-
mon decency.