THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing CO., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
Alan Hitsky, News Editor . . . Heidi Press, Assistant News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 27th day of Shevat, 5735, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exod. 21:1-24:18 and Num. 30:11-16. Prophetical portion,
II Kings 12:1-17. Rosh Hodesh, Tuesdau and Wednesdau Num. 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 7, 5:36 p.m.
VOL. LXVI, No. 22
Page Four
Friday, February 7, 1975
Breaching Difficulties in Path of Amity
Conflicting Middle East reports and news
analyses have already created many tensions
stemming from fears of another impending
war. Hopelessness about the developing situa-
tions has dominated the views of many in
governments, the press and the areas affected.
Nevertheless, there is an emerging senti-
ment that all is not lost in the negotiaions for
renewed agreements for an accord that may
lead to an abandonment of despair. There is
even a resort to the distantly-expected
"peace." When that remotely anticipated term
is bandied by such personalities as French
President Giscard d'Estaing there is cause
for the belief that predicted new bloodbaths
can and will be averted.
Meanwhile there is the recurring debate
over the status of Arabs in Israel-occupied
territories. While Arabs have demonstrated
against Israel's administration in the terri-
tories occupied by Israel in the West Bank,
and the much-touted Palestinian issue is re-
ferred to as the crucial factor in the problems
debated globally, enough evidence is intro-
duced to indicate the many advantages to the
Arabs under Israel's rule to prove the justice
of the Jewish state's approach to the issues at
hand.
"The bridges" that link Israel with Jordan
are the best proof of amicable trading between
the two countries. On the Allenby and other
crosspoints Arabs regularly appear with their
products, which they transfer freely from one
country to another. All they need do, under
supervision of both Israelis and Jordanians,
is to effect the change-over of truck plates
from one country to the other. Meanwhile
there is profit galore for the trading Arabs.
Action speaks louder than words and business
goes on "as usual" without interference, sans
terrorism, in defiance of whatever the so-
called Palestinian leaders may assert.
Proof is provided demonstratively in the
Free Press Intelligence Report which indi-
cated the following:
Thanks to an "underground" trade system,
a variety of Israeli products—including refrig-
erators, air conditioners and tires—are finding
their way into the Arab world.
Here's how it works: The goods are first
sold to Arab dealers on the Israeli-occupied
West Bank of Jordan, who remove "Made in
Israel" labels, Hebrew stamps and other tell-
tale markings — replacing them with phony
Arabic, French or English brand names. The
items are then shipped to dealers in Jordan,
and from there, as one Israeli put it, "They
could end up almost anywhere in the Middle
East."
For instance, $1,500 Israeli refrigerators
have been spotted in Egypt and Iraq.
In turn, Arab merchandise comes into Is-
rael. Things like plastic Jordanian coat hang-
ers—with their original labels—have turned
up in Tel Aviv supermarkets, and Syrian back-
gammon sets, water pipes, belly-dancing drums
and other objects are openly displayed in the
market of Jerusalem's Old City.
Israelis cite their underground trade with
Arab countries as proof of the wisdom behind
Israel's "Open Bridges" policy — which has
permitted an uninterrupted flow of traffic
across the bridges connecting Jordan's East
and West Banks—even during the Yom Kip-
pur War.
"This trickle back and forth is just a hint
of how real peace could benefit all of us in the
Middle East," says one Israeli businessman.
"For Arab and Jew alike, peace would mean
prosperity."
This is only part of the evidence of an
available amicability in trade that could and
should lead to good relations, with an assur-
ance of a possible peace. The New York Times
International Economic Survey for 1975 in-
cluded a valuable analysis of the phosphates
industry in Israel by the prominent Israeli
correspondent, Moshe Brilliant, who, in the
important review of the experiences revolving
upon its development, showed how Israel was
prepared to cooperate with Jordan to enable
the neighboring country similarly to benefit
from such.
The Brilliant article ("Israel Profits from
Phosphates, Thanks to King Hussein"), pre-
sents, inter alia, these important facts:
-
General Mordechai Makleff, managing di-
rector of Israel Chemicals, Ltd., Government-
owned organization, has proposed cooperation
with the Jordanians, who have been unable to
start their own plant on the eastern shore. He
suggested to World Bank officials that the
Jordanians share Israel's facilities, which
would cost a prohibitive $200-million to dupli-
cate at today's prices.
,Cooperation would be an obvious boon to
the Jordanians, who are heavily dependent on
Arab and American financial support, but the
Amman Government has not responded. Gen-
eral Makleff acknowledged that there was no
prospect of acceptance at this time.
It is clear that realism is needed to achieve
the desired means of elevating the standards
of living and of trade relations between na-
tions now nominally at war in the Middle East.
When one of the parties in the discord keeps
denying the neighbor's right to exist, the
outward appearance is one of endless war and
hopelessness in a tragic situation that is per-
petuated inexcusably. If trading can go on so
freely, why can't there also be a political
approach, a neighborly act, an end to quarrel-
ing? If farmers can travel freely from border
to border, why can't diplomats meet at the
green table of statesmanship to arrive at a
measure of agreement to end disputes?
Hussein surely knows the facts, as the
minor factors in the phosphates developing
aspects indicate among many other concrete
examples of available industrial cooperation
emphasizes; and the Israelis keep pleading for -
a meeting of minds to arrive at an understand-
ing that is both neighborly and statesmanlike.
But there is a bitterness engendered by ene-
mies, saber-rattlers and warmongers who are
bent on destroying Israel that stands in the
way. It is reasonable to believe that the
aspirants to Israel's destruction may, after all,
be in a minority. Perhaps this is the difficulty,
now in the way of President Gerald Ford and
Secretary of -State Henry A. Kissinger, that
may yet be breached. '•
•
Funny Road from Riadh
If it weren't so serious, it would be funny
—an Arab from Riadh telling an American
newsman that Jews need not worry about
him because there are Jews on the board of
Mobil Oil Co. That's how an Arab intruding
into the Detroit banking system seeks to ex-
onerate a fanatical government from shocking
practices against all Jews. It's a funny road
for a Saudi Arabian from Riadh to a bank
in Detroit, but the ruts are for Americans to
be seriously concerned with. If Americans
keep shouting "Beware", perhaps FDIC will
recognize the menace and the Saudi will
use his return ticket home.
-
Theological Dispute
Christian Anti-Semitism Roots
Traced in Re-Printed Volume
The growth of Christian anti-Semitism during the first eight cen-
turies of the Christian movement, was catalogued in detail in James
Parkes' definitive volume "The Conflict of the Church and Synagogue."
First published in 1934, this major work has been re-issued by
Sepher-Hermon Press. A compilation of years of research by hundreds
of scholars, Parkes' volume has a bibliography for each chapter, and
ends with five apendices.
Beginning with the Jews in the Roman world, Parkes takes the
reader through the initial break with Christianity, the developing anti-
Jewish codes and Jewish persecution, the Byzantine Empire, -and con-
cludes with Visigothic Spain.
Parkes says that, "In 1096 there were wild outbreaks against the
Jews in all the cities of northern and central Europe. What made this
possible? The answer could only be found by a study of the earlier
period, a period incidentally which is little known, by either Jewish or
Christian scholars . . ."
He said he became convinced that the real roots of the problem
of anti-Semitism lay in the conflict between Church and Synagogue,
and in his volume he presents as much of the material on the subject
as possible.
Parkes' introduction bridges the gap between the last nine cen-
turies of Christian-Jewish conflict and the first 1,000 years covered in
his volume.
Parkes says, "We are concerned with the clash of two religious
organizations, and only indirectly with the conflict of theological con-
ceptions which was involved.
"It is not the Christian doctrine which has been the main external
influence in the Jewish life of the last 1,500 years, but the Christian
Church.
"The Jewish problem today expresses itself primarily in ecom
and political phraseology. False racial theories have been substituted
for false readings of the Old Testament.
"Jewish observances are perhaps more colored by Roman influences
than by Christianity. Sephardic Judaism owes much to its contact with
Arab civilization. But the whole of the Jewish world even today bears
the marks of the environment, friendly or hostile, created by the
Christian Church.
"For throughout all those centuries a large portion of the Jewish
people have lived under the domination of a Christian majority. The
Jews of today are the direct inheritors of the life of medieval Jewry,
and the life of medieval Jewry was built upon foundations laid in the
earliest centuries of its daughter religion."
Parkes continues by giving an example of the difficulty scholars
have in tracing the early differences between Church and Synagogue:
"Both the historical development of the event and the historical
development of the literature describing it have to be traced."
He relates how in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' efforts with a
certain group of Jews is described. In succeeding gospels, the group
is referred to as the Pharisees, then the scribes, and finally another
party. "In the fourth gospel all are included together under the general
term 'the Jews', and all are considered to be, and always have been,
the enemies of the new teaching."
Parkes' "Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue" easily remains
a standard reference for reviewing the literature on the roots of anti-
Semitism, and its re-printing is a valuable addition to currently
available volumes.