Purely Commentary

Senatorial 'Shifts' and the Retention of Faith
in American Sense of Justice . . . Moshe Dayan
Speaks About Homeland and Peace Tasks.

By Philip

Slomovitz

Ethical Aspects of a Banking Crisis : Jews Aspire for Justice the Legal American Way

Only once has American Jewry organized a boycott to counteract oppressive
acts of tyranny and barbarism. It was the anti-Nazi boycott in the era of Hitlerian
cruelties.
Non-Jews, recognizing the horror of the emerging Nazi terror, joined the anti-
Nazi boycott and it became a massive American movement in retaliation for the cruel-
ties that were introduced by the beasts who took control of Germany and were intro-
ducing their bestialities in the lands they conquered.
Saudi Arabia is one of the 20 sovereign Arab states that are conducting a boy-
cott of Israel and her Jewish kinsmen throughout the world.
Israelis and their Jewish kinsmen have not retaliated against the Arabs. There
has been no talk of a boycott—not only because you can't boycott oil magnates who
have begun to control the world's economy but also out of a conviction that boycotts
are not realistic weapons in fighting an economic war.
The striving is for peace and for recognition of justice. Neither Americans nor
Jewish ideals seek retaliation as a measure of self-protection. The quest is for justice
and the human approach to international relations. It is the threat to this principle that
is the cause for the current concern.
A Saudi Arabian has come upon the Greater Detroit scene with sufficient cash
to assume control of a major bank. The news has shocked the community. There are
many people of all faiths who are seriously concerned about Arab intrusions into the
American business world. They are using oil money to buy banks in Detroit and in
California, hotels in Texas and properties elsewhere. There is even the fear that Arab
money may gain control of some of the largest manufacturing plants in America.
The natural reaction to the Detroit bank situation was for Jewish depositors in
the Commonwealth Bank to withdraw their funds from an institution that is soon to be
controlled by an Arab.
Understandably, Jews refuse to be partners in a banking system with a man
who comes from a country that denies entrance to Jews. Jews in the U.S. air force
were denied admission to the U.S. Air Base near Riadh by Saudi Arabia. When five
Jewish members of the press corps that accompanied Secretary of State Henry A.
Kissinger on his first visit to Saudi Arabia asserted their rights to be in that country
fof the purpose of their trip with Dr. Kissinger, the question was posed whether Kissin-
ger would have yielded to Arab pressure to leave the Jews behind on the plane had
they not demanded equal rights as Americans.
Understandably, therefore, Jews are withdrawing their funds from the Common-
wealth Bank. Understandably, the Jewish War Veterans are protesting. Understandably,
a Jewish lawyer has demanded an injunction against the sale of controlling stock in
a local bank to a non-citizen.
Ironically, there have been all-too-few non-Jewish opinions on the subject. While
the banking industry was represented overwhelmingly at the reception for the Saudi
Arabian purchaser of the controlling interest in the Commonwealth Bank, there are
indications of grave concern over the developments in their ranks and the leading
bankers have privately shown irritation. They share the view of Max M. Fisher that
this is an American issue and that the 'best interests of this country call for the preven-
tion of control of America's financial institutions by Arabs who come here with vast
sums derived from oil profits.
Therefore the matter must be treated as an American issue and the proper
'authorities must be alerted not to permit intrusion of Arab control of America's life-
blood in its financial system.
So, in a moment of relaxation, the seriously affected and concerned citizen asks
a basic question: Since this is an American issue, why did only Jews assert themselves?

Moshe Dayan the Realist

Moshe Dayan took it on the chin after the Yom Kip-
pur War. He was blamed for some of the blunders which
caused Israel to be unprotected during the surprise attack
on the Day of Atonement in 1973. He is still being blud-
geoned and relatives of those who were killed in that
tragic war have picketed lectures he was to have given
at Bar-Ilan University and elsewhere.

Where are the non-Jewish American patriots in the face of an issue so serious to the
American economy and to the self-respect of Americans who are over the barrel when
Arabs deal with them in Arab countries or at the oilwells?
It isn't a question of a boycott. It is a matter of admonishing the non-Jewish
ccommunity to understand that it must show an interest in its own economic security,
that it must protect the American financial system against a damaging foreign intru-
sion. When the non-Jews join with their Jewish fellow citizens, as they did in the 1930s
in the Anti-Nazi boycott, in a protective and cooperative American action of fair play
and self-respect, then there will be no need for a boycott. Then a system that calls ,_for
confidence by depositors in their banks because the banks will be part of the Amer ` 4,
way of life will stay sound and there will not be need for divisiveness on a B.
American need.
Max M. Fisher is firm in his aim to protect the American role in the nation's
banking system. Tackling it in the American way, the support he receives may bring
desired results. Since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. may not act on the matte'
for four months, a bit of practical planning and patience while retaining firmness in
defense of the nation's banking needs could as it should bring a solution protecting the
dignity of a banking community.

The situation caused a nationally concerned financier to ask this commentator
and others in responsible Jewish positions, the peculiar question, "Will Jews picket,
create violence, break bank windows?"

Those who ask these questions do not begin to know fully the Jewish attitudes
on normal living with their fellow men. True, there has been some violence in matters
involving the Arabs, primarily in New York and on a single occasion in Washington.
But 'that was the work of repudiated individuals who are not acting in accord with
established Jewish community relations.
Jews do not boycott. Jews do not terrify. Jews do not smash windows of people
they differ with.
Jews resent discrimination and will fight it to the bitter end—in peaceful ways,
using legal means to secure justice. This is why we do not retaliate with boycotts, as
Arab states are doing against Israel and against the entire Jewish people.
There are grievances—and this is where Saudi Arabia comes in. King Faisal, who
is advised by the father of the man who seeks control of a Detroit bank, is giving
comfort to those who boycott Israel and he is himself a partner in that nefarious tactic.
Is a consort of his to be trusted?
Faisal wants to worship in Jerusalem. Israel says to him: Welcome! Come and
worship as freely as all peoples of all faiths do in our Holy City! But don't try to come
in with an army to destroy our homeland!
Anything wrong with that?
There is a quest for justice, and if control of an American financial institution
stands in the way of fairness the battle has commenced and Jews must consider it
obligatory to go to the highest rung of legal maneuvering to get the FDIC or any other
American agency to prevent infiltration of strange forces into our economic community.
The menace of the infiltrating threat to this nation's industrial and financial
community is in evidence now in Michigan. This is a time to say to this community
and to the nation at large: beware! This is a time for action by our government
to prevent an impending danger to the security of American institutions. There must
be action before the vast oil-produced funds enforce a domination that will prove a
curse to generations to come.

military party there. We don't want to replace the
people there, but this is our homeland. We have the
right to be there.

Q. What about the aspirations of the Palestini-
• ans for a state of their own?
A. There is simply no room for a separate Pal-
estinian state on the West Bank. It's half a sausage,
that's all: No outlet to the sea, no economy, no mili-
tary. Talk to any sober, responsible Arab leader.
They'll say, "No, that's not what we want. We want
the Israelis out, that's all."

Nevertheless
his views are not ig-
nored. He is listened
to. Many still believe .
he will one day resume
In the ultimate, it is safer to speak with 'a man who
major responsibilities
frank than another who beats around the bush. One
in the Israel govern- is
knows what Dayan wants. He does not believe there will
ment.
be a war, yet he emphasizes the need to be prepared for
It's interesting: he
all eventualities. He is no longer in uniform and he is out
often adopts an ex-
of power but he is still listened to.
treme view of Israel's
position. For example,
he had a three-hour in-
The Senatorial Shifts
terview with Terrence
Are there shifts in pro-Israel sentiments in Congress?
Smith of the New York
Have some of Israel's friends fallen prey to Arafat propa-
Times he went so far
ganda, judging by admonitions from two members of the
as to assert (contrary
U.S. Senate, that Israel is in danger of losing U.S. support
to the official attitude)
if there is to be a pre-emptive war?
that Jews have a right
to settle in Hebron and
There is a new challenge in seeking support for Jewish
on other areas in the West Bank territory now admin-
in Israel and elsewhere. Once again there will no doubt
istered by Israel.
emerge a debate over the "Jewish lobby." Barbara Tuch-
Moshe Dayan pulls no punches. He sees the West
man, in a Newsweek article, asserted that there is such
Bank as a part of the Jewish homeland and Israelis re-
a lobby and that it has a right to function. It is much
maining there with "limited rights". When one speaks
more urgent that humanitarian rather than lobbying rec-
of "limited rights" he suggests at once the desire to
ognition be accorded those who aim to avert another
negotiate. Dayan rules out another state for Palestinians.
tragedy for Jews.
He explained himself in answers to, two questions in the
interview with Terence Smith and they deserve quotation:
One anti-Israel legislator,. U.S. Senator James Abou-
rezk of South Dakota (of Lebanese origin) described the
Q. What kind of a future do you envision for the
viewpoints of many pro-Israel Senators as "cavalier". A
West Bank?
people's struggle for very life and its friends' quest for
traditional American support requires much more than
A. I want us to remain in the West Bank, with
cavalier treatment. It calls for dedication to justice,
limited rights, including the right to establish Jewish
and that's what's asked of Abourezk, Percy, McClure,
settlements there, to buy land, and keep a military
Mansfield and even Fulbright. Faith in the American
presence there to protect it. We should be the only
sense of fair play leads to the belief that the U.S. Con-
2 Friday, February 7, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
gress will remain overwhelmingly friendly to Israel.

—

A Correspondent Who Subdued

One lives and learns; and if he has forgotten and
learns anew the reminiscence is newly revealing.
Joseph Alsop, in one of his most recent valedictory
columns, recalled the role of Walter Duranty, who had
been hailed as a great foreign correspondent. But his role
in Russia proved a submissive one, Alsop reveals anew:

The reporter's trade was already showing signs of
that fatal hankering to be fashionable, which is one of
the trade's occupational diseases today. As one example,
take Walter Duranty, the famous Moscow correspondent
of the 1930's and the years of World War II.

Duranty, an agreeable man who was a friend of
mine, was the foreign correspondent most admired in
his time, except by those who had' some real idea of
the horrors Joseph Stalin was perpetrating in Russia.
Those who seriously reported the horrors, as William
Stoneman reported the hideous government-created
famine in the Ukraine, did not last very long in Mose ,-

Duranty instead covered up the horrors and de
an entire generation by prettifying Soviet realities.
Hence he was showered with the adulation of American
intellectuals who did not want the truth. He was awarded
a Pulitzer Prize. He lived uncommonly comfortably in
Moscow, too, by courtesy of the KGB.

By deluding an American generation, Duranty also
did a lot of harm. It makes me angry to remember him,
although I liked him.

Nowadays, moreover, we have what is called "ad-
vocacy journalism," which I think more dangerous than
the kind of hankering to be fashionable that mainly
motivated Duranty.

Even as a mere reminiscence about old experiences
the Alsop story has much merit. It is especially note-
worthy for comparison with the present-day American
correspondents in the Soviet Union. They are a courageous
lot. They have not hesitated to expose the anti-Jewish
discriminations. Thanks to them, the facts about dissidents
of all faiths and Jews desiring to emigrate from the USSR
have been placed on the record.
Progress has been made—thanks to the correspondents
who search for facts and disseminate them, whether the
people in the areas they cover as newsmen like it or not.

