2 Friday, July 18, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
The Map of the Middle East, Israel as a Pinpoint in Moslem-
Dominated World, the Shocking Platform for the Bigots in
the American Press Which Calls Israel an Empire
By Philip
Slomovitz
The U.S. State Department is Authority for Map That Refutes Bigoted Anti-Israel Propagandists
Truth is a delicate matter. People cannot
be compelled to test every item that comes
their way until the verities are ascertained.
Yet, there are times when misinformation is
so flagrant and the spread of lies so eminent
that those confronted with the distortions
are expected to reject the libelous. It is not so
in the columns called the public forums in '
many American newspapers.
In Detroit, for example, the new trend of
anti-Israel propaganda, disseminated
unquestionably by newly, organized forces
that are bent upon undermining the role of
the Jewish state and to destroy the Ameri-
can-Israel friendship, has inundated the two
daily newspapers with letters that are filled
with vile approaching nonsense. Yet the let-
ters that are so obviously based on untruths
find an acceptance that shocks the imagina-
tion.
It is necessary first of all to nail to the
posts of sheer falsehoods two arguments
that have been resorted to by the haters of
Israel.
First: an impression is being spread that
only the Arabs seek peace, that the reason
Israel refuses to yield to pressures from
Sadat and from White House is that the
Jewish state doesn't want peace. That, of
course, is nonsense. Surrgunded on all sides,
the 3 million Jews in ISrael being over-
whelmed by the 120 million enemies in the
' surrounding countries, wouldn't it be sheer
stupidity for Israel not to crave for peace.
Second: the spreading libel is that Israel is
an empire and is grabbing territory. No
matter how often the map has been-reprod-
uced, it shows that Israel is a pinprick.
In the interest of truth, let the map be
seen again. The accompanying reproduction
is a map that was prepared, in its explana-
tory statements of conditions existing in the
Middle East, by the State Department.
Not only is the minuteness of Israel a refu-
tation of the deplorable rumor that the Jew-
ish state is land hungry and aims at grab-
bing up additional territory. All the disputes
that had erupted since the Yom Kippur War
have led to constant and repeated Israeli con-
cessions to abandon large stretches of areas
on one condition: that Sadat give an assur-
ance that he will not resort to war for a spec-
ified period. Any better proof of Israel's
craving for amity and peace and for readi-
ness to submit to American pressures? Yet
the uninformed have formed an army of pro-
pagandists who are poisoning the press with
misinformation that could readily be dis-
pelled if the spreaders of falsehoods were
only to take a rapid glance at the map.
The fact is that the searcher for truth will
find it difficult to locate Israel on the map of
the vast Arab possessions. So tiny is this lit-
tle land that it is necessary to search for its
GREECE
Atlantic Ocean
TUNISIA .
existence amidst Jordan, Lebanon and the
united Aral) Republic (Egypt). Yet the en-
dangered state of Israel is called an empire.
With due respect for the intelligence of
those who are confronted with this eviden-
tial fact, the definitive attempt ends here.
There are, however, other basic facts that
need emphasis. Are those who keep pressur-
_ing- Israel so thick-skinned that they can not
admit to Israel's readiness to yield strategic
areas on only one condition: a promise not to
wage w ar! Yet even President Ford, by exer-
cising what later was denied as anger by his
pre. ss secretary, invited the ignominy of
being branded in some quarters as "the vil-
lain of the peace!" That's something to be se-
riously. deplored by peace-loving people and
especially by Israel's friends in this country.
Apparently it is the fear lest Israel be sub-
jected to another tragic war that is the cause
of all the misery accompanying the rashness
of an international tragedy revolving around
Arab intransigence in refusing a right to life
to the People Israel in the Land of Israel.
Possessors of millions of miles of territory in
20 states would deny to little Israel a few •
thousand miles of homeland. And the bil-
lions. in wealth and the dqinination of the oil
market is influencing a would-be civilized
mankind into a ganged-up antagonism to-
wards Israel. Will the civilized come to their
senses? Will a descriptive map be of some
help in gaining justice for Israel?
CYPRUSifir
LEBANON
ISRAEL
QATAR
S. YEMEN
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