f • II 1. •P THE JEWISH. NEWS Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commen•i-ng with the issue of July 20, 11151 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 Editor and Publisher Business Manager DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager • Alan Hitsky, News Editor . . . Heidi Press. Assistant News Edit Or . SABBATH SCRIPTURAL SELECTIONS . This Sabbath, the first day of Iyar, 5735, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuch& portion, Levit. 12:1-15:33; Num. 28.9-15. Prophetical portion, Is«iah 66:1 24. - Candle lighting, Friday, April 11, 6:50 p.m. VOL. LXVI1, No. 5 . Page Four Friday, April 11, 1975 27 Years of Israel's Progress Israel's 27 years, marked by this week's Yom . Atzmaut celebration, were marked by tensions, menacing threats from the surrounding neigh- bors and international uncertainties. They were blurred in the assembly halls of an United Na- tions that has-been blemished by evils stemming from hatreds. The 20 enemy nations that are ba- thing in oil and are becoming world dominant forces as a result of wealth attained from an en- ergy-impoverished world are begrudging little Israel mere breathing space amidst vast territo- ries under. Arab control. Nevel-theless, the 27 years were fruitful, marked by remarkable creativity. The reborn Jewish state emptied the displacement persons camps that were filled with survivors from Naz- ism and provided havens for another million people who fled from persecutions behind the Iron and Moslem Curtains. Universities were es- tablished to benefit students from all faiths. Significant research has been conducted to as- sure healing and improvements in all phases of life. • Never without threats, always in danger from terrorists who do not hesitate to murder inno- cent people by resorting to inhuman brutalities. Israelis are not a panicking folk, nourished on - hopes for peace. They have shown faith in the certainty of an emerging humanism that will restore confidence in mankind's sense of justice. The struggle for a free life in Israel continues. The menacing situations have not declined. Plow in hand and sword on shoulder for self-protec- tion continues to be the lot of the Israeli farmer, and the city-dweller must constantly be on guard against marauders and terrorists. In the realm of diplomacy the roads to peace are still blocked by many obstacles yet to be hurdled. These obstructions are not viewed with despair. The confidence in the coming of • better days, never subsides amidst the tensions that create endless concerns. • Israel's faith and confidence is shared by her kinsmen. It would be not only cruel but lacking' Whas been just over a year since the Yom Kippur War hostili- in vision to fail to give to Israel and her people ties ended and the battle of the peace began; time enough for sev- the encouragement due them, or to interrupt the eral books about the war to be written. The latest paperback, enti- spirit of solidarity with the embattled nation. tled -"The YOrn Kippur War" by reporter Dan Ofry (Zohar Israel's message to the Diaspora is one of Publishing Co.,.Ltd., Tel Avic) makes a valiant attempt to cover the deep-rooted faith. The greetings of Diaspora fighting through the eyes of the participants, but falls a bit short.. Ofry, a military correspondent and commentator, has covered Jewry to Israel are of assurance that the part- the last two wars and written several books. "The Yom Kippur nership of kinsmen can not and will not end. This is the jointly signalized exchange of salu- . War" devotes many of its chapters to the war as seen by the foot soldiers,' sailors and pilots of Israel. In this vein, the book some- tations between Diaspora and Israel on the 27th times leaves much to be desired in comprehensive coverage of one Yom Atzmaut. The glory, spirit and confidence of the biggest,' most dramatic and heartbreaking episodes in Is- of Israel shall never be degraded! rael's history. . 1973 War: A Patriotic View of the Triumphs, Tragedies Facts and Fiction: Frantic Quest for Truth Israel's—and therefore all of Jewry's—very distressing problem is the quest for means to ov- ercome the spread of distortions regarding Is- rael's treatment of Arabs on the West Bank and other Arab populated territories. Israel has ex- pelled some Arab terrorists from administered territories when the suspects of plotting to ter- rorize Israelis were definitely ascertained that they were guilty of active roles in terrorism. It stands to reason that Israel must act in her own defense and those guilty of plotting her de- struction must be dealt with firmly. But accusations against Israel have assumed such shocking proportions, and many of the at- tacks on Israel are so far-fetched and so fictional that the‘concern they cause are affected by diffi- culty to deal with imaginary libels. The upsetting element is the ease with which men of the cloth have fallen victims to the un- truths thus disseminated. An example of the ex- tent of the misleading submissions to fables is a letter that was addressed to the Churchman, the Episcopal magazine, by the Rev. Milford 0. Cross of Madison, Conn., disputing an article by Robert St. John (which also appeared in The De- troit Jewish News, Dec. 13). Rev. Cross took is- sue with St. John's condemnation of the PLO and of their terrorist acts. But Rev. Cross went to extremes in an effort to show that Jews also had their terrorists. This has become a routine practice in Arab propaganda campaigns. Mr. St. John was given an opportunity by the Churchman to reply to Rev. Cross and he stated: Mr. Cross is quite correct in stating that a fierce terrorism was launched against the Bri- tish in Palestine in the 1930's and 1940's "by some Jews." But the attempt of Mr. Cross and others to equate the anarchic activities of the PLO with such Jewish terrorism ignores the - following fundamental differences: The assassination of Count Bernadotte and Lord Moyne, the dynamiting of one wing of the King David Hotel and the killing of civilians at Deir Yassin were the work of either the Irgun or Stern Group and were denounced by the Jewish Agency, the officially recognized rep- resentative of the Jewish people of Palestine, and by all responsible Jewish leaders' of the time. The day after the Deir Yassin tragedy, the Jewish Agency issued an official statement expressing the "horror and disgust" felt by the Zionist leadership, and called the attack "irresponsible, ill-conceived and frankly bru- tal." The next day the Jewish Agency, which upon independence a month later became the government of Israel, repeated the statement in a telegram to King Abdullah of Transjor- dan. On that same day the two chief rabbis of Palestine issued a statement expressing the same sentiments. This is in striking contrast to the reaction of Arab nations and Arab lead- ets to such PLO atrocities as the shooting up of Lod airport, the murder of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games and the tragedies of Maalot and Kiryat Shemona. The PLO is fi- nanced by Arab governments. Even its most brutal planned killings of civilians have been officially applauded by Arab governments. Those who have hijacked planes, murdered civilians and set an example for criminals all over the world to follow in terrorizing large segments of a population, have been given offi- cial asylum in Arab countries. It is torturing logic to try to equate all this with anything that happened in Palestine before 1948. Fortunately, Mr. St. John, a long-time stu- dent of the Middle East problem, who only two weeks ago returned from another of his exten- sive tours of that area, does not permit untruth to go unchallenged. The few who, like Mr. St. John, know the true facts must be mobilized to counteract • the damaging anti-Israelism that often equates with anti-Semitism. A new army of Israel's defenders is needed to tackle the is- sues. Mr. St. John could well serve as their guide and teacher. Non-Jews as well as Jews are vi- tally needed as soldiers in this army for truth. However, in the book's defense, the reader receives a frontline taste of Israel's preparedness, or lack of it, what individual soldiers saw and felt, and how Israel's leaders mishandled information, fought political, personal and egotistical battles during the fight- ing, and ultimately directed a stunning surprise into a military victory. — Ofry humanizes the inhuman by taking the reader right into the trenches and blockhouses. Only one of the strongpoints on the Bar-Lev line along the Suez Canal held out through the entire con- flict. Eleven others were captured after days of holding out by the small Israeli detachments, and only one group managed to escape. One stronghold commander, who took command just a week before the Egyptian-Syrian "surprise" attack, complained bitterly to his predecessor about the condition of the outpost's equipment and fortifications. The experienced officer threatened to not take control because his predecessor refused to go through the required two-day change-of-command routine. The officer found so many shortcomings in equipment and supplies, and so little response from headquarters, that he personally started a sit-down protest after the end of the war that ultimately led to Moshe Dayan's dis- missal and the 'fall of Golda Meir's government. The lack of preparedness of the fortification was typical of the examples Ofry uses to•describe how senior commanders and Pre- mier Golda Meir's advisers misread, downplayed, and sometimes rejected frontline and air force reconnaissance showing the mass- ing of Syrian and Egyptian troops. Flaw 'after flaw in the Israelis' defensive plans and prepared- ness are exposed in the book, as is the heroism of the Israeli sol- diers,. and the earlier planning. and escapades that led Israel to "steal" the world's best missile boat fleet from the French, her pos- sible nuclear capability with the nuclear plant at Dimona, and how two dedicated men working with a shoestring budget designed and perfected the world's finest ship-to-ship missiles. The development of the Gabriel, missiles, and the behind the scenes story, of how Israel stole its own missile boats out of Cher- bourg harbor during 1971 to beat the French arms embargo, make fascinating reading, as do the episodes describing the personal bat- tles between Israel's generals over the conduct of the war. One of the book'a major failures is its lack of information on the Agranat Commission report. Although the cover announces the book as "Up-to-date! Highlights of the Agranat Report," most of the Agranat material is based on the preliminary report released last year, and only a few of those conclusions are incorporated into the text. The last three pages of the 348-page book "selected highlights" of the commission's early findings. The more re mo than 1,000 pages of the Agranat final report were completed only a few weeks ago, and most of the findings have not been made public. Despite the obvious flaws, Dan Ofry's "The Yom Kippur War" provides an easily read overview of a tragic war: