56 Friday, August 1, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Journalist Warns America Against Complacency: `Crucial Challenges and Rededication for Survival' By ROBERT ST. JOHN (Keynote address deliv- ered Sunday at the 46th annual convention of the National Federation of .Jewish Men's Clubs.) In the 1930s many col- leagues of mine (such fellow foreign correspondents as William L. Shirer, Vincent Sheean, Quentin Reynolds tried by. written and spoken word to alert a very compla- cent America to what was about to happen — what was already happening in Europe. But very few lis- tened. In 1939-40 I and many other war correspondents came home and went on radio and on the lecture platform to tell of what the Nazis were doing to Euro- pean Jews. But not even American Jews seemed to take it very seriously. Now (in my opinion) we are once again on the thres- hold of possible catastrophe, yet again I find the Ameri- can Jewish public (in gen- eral) very complacent. I fear greatly for Israel's survival and for the survial of all that's meant by your Jewishness. I fear also for the survival of many values that we Americans (Jews and non-Jews alike) at least pretend we believe in. What is the basis of this fear? Listen! Item No. 1: Jordan and Syria have just recently agreed on joint military action against Israel when and if war comes and the Ford Administration is at this moment supplying Jordan with Hawk sur- face-to-air missiles and other sophisticated weap- ons for use against Israel, while at the same time denying Israel any new weapons, at least until the so-called reassessment is over, meaning, perhaps, until Israel agrees to lie down quietly and become another Czechoslovakia, in order to satisfy certain personal ambitions of Dr. Kissinger. For years I've been de- nouncing the policy of arm- ing-, both sides in various parts of the world: Greeks against Turks and Turks against Greeks; Pakistani against Indians and Indians against Pakistani, half a dozen Latin American coun- tries against each other. In 1967 I witnessed a bat- tle between two identical tanks near the YMCA in the Old City of Jerusalem — one a Patton tank we had given to Jordan, the other a Patton tank we had given Is- rael the privilege of buying from us. The Israeli Patton won. The Jordanian Patton ended up burned out, up- side-down. When the metal was cool enough to touch, I yanked-off a piece of the Jordanian Patton and for eight years have been carry- ing it around the lecture circuit and holding it up as an ugly example of Great Power Immorality. Why? . 'tern No. • 2:' We are ship- ping this year to Saudi Ara- bia one and a half billion dollars worth of war machi- nery — 14 times what we sold her a year or two agO. Without the approval of Congress (or the American people) the White House and Pentagon have inaugu- rated a 10-year plan to give Saudi Arabia the strongest army in the Middle East, while Saudi Arabia finances Israel's enemies and has made it clear that in time of war she will let Syria and Egypt "borrow" any . of her war machines they may need to destroy Israel. Why? Item No. 3: Most of the Third World and the Arab countries, probably with Communist encourage- ment, are threatening to vote to suspend Israel this fall from the UN General Assembly, as the first step in expelling her completely from the UN. Why? Item No. 4: During the first quarter of 1975, the Ar- abs have invested half a bil- lion dollars in the stocks and bonds of key American cor- porations, with no apparent objection from anyone. Why? Item No. 5: When Ameri- can colleges and universities open a month or two from now, there will be a 36 per- cent increase in the number of Arab students on U.S. campuses. Dr. Norman Fri- mer, national director of Hillel, indicated in an ad- dress in Washington that he is not worried. Having been recently on some university campuses and having seen the Arab students in action, I am worried. I lectured recently at Or- egon State University. On the way in from the airport I asked the professor who had met me how many Arab students Oregon State U. had. He said something like 100. I made him a bet that 10 of them would be in the first row at my lecture. I was wrong. There were 19, plus others scattered around the room. The audi- ence was almost totally an- tagonistic. In the question period one of the Arabs said to me: "You and your Jew- friends have had it all your way for a long time, but things are now changing — very fast. Start listen- ing to Howard K. Smith and Reasoner. We've got that network taken care of. And we'll be taking care of the others soon." For two hours they gave me a very bad time. I was told there were a few Israelis among the stu- dents, although not one ap- peared at the lecture. Later I asked one of them why? "Because we're here to learn to become agricultural ex- perts, engineers," he said. "Not to make propaganda." My reply was that they had better start taking as much interest in Middle Eastern affairs as the Arab students are taking, or there might ROBERT ST. JOHN b.) Senator Fulbright's recent statement upon his return from a tour of the Middle East: "The Arabs have learned to be moder- ate, reasonable. Gone are the days of the Nasser pe- riod when the Arabs threat- ened to exterminate the Is- raelis." I need not waste time proving to you how untrue those statements are. But I do wish to warn you that millions of Americans ac- cept them as fact, and that's the reason I mention them. not he an Israel to go back to. P.S. to the story. If there are any American Jewish students at Oregon State, not one of them made his presence felt at the lecture that night. Why not? Item No. 6: In many univ- ersities around the country the Middle East Affairs Depts. are suddenly being staffed by 100 percent pro- Arab professors, instead of either neutralists or pro-Is- rael specialists. Why? Item No. 7: After 76 U.S. Senators recently signed a letter of support for Israel, a dispatch from Washing- ton said that Ford and Kis- singer, angered by this action, were going to go over the heads of the Sena- tors and "take the issue to the people." Incidentally, before this Kissinger-Ford campaign to change the public's mind, polls showed that Americans in general were more than three to one in favor of full support of Israel. Item No. 8: Last month at the Bnai Brith convention in St. Louis, two pickets dressed in full Nazi regalia carried signs reading: "Hitler was right." Item No. 9: The largest Argentine newspaper re- cently published a full-page ad for a book on Argentine inflation, showing Argen- tina crucified on the cross whose nail heads were Mo- gen Davids, and at the base of the cross sat a hook-nosed person with a hammer in hand. WHY? Item No. 10: The leaders of Arab-Americans are or- ganizing a public relations campaign, financed by U.S. oil companies like Gulf, Mobil and Standard of Cali- fornia. A sample of their as- tuteness: entire high school classes are being taken on trips to Arab countries — all expenses paid by Arab oil interests. Why? Item No. 11: Paul Jo- seph Goebbels, Hitter's minister of public enlight- enment, used the tech- nique of The Big. Lie with ferocious effectiveness. Now the Arabs and their friends are using it, just as effectively. Two examples of how they repeat either a complete falsehood or a half-lie so frequently that it gets believed: a.) We have nothing against Jews; it's only Zion- ists we hate. Item No. 12: In the De- troit News the other day there appeared a letter signed by a very WASP name, Robert Blake, attack- ing Israel most bitterly. It contained, by my own count, 27 half-truths. Here's a small example of the dis- tortion: "Israel lacks free- dom of the press, religious neutrality, equality under the law, freedom of associa- tion and universal suffrage. "Instead of liberty, equal- ity and democracy we find authority, servility and theocracy. True, elections are staged — which always result in a labor government — but if that makes Israel a democracy, then South Af- rica and Russia are demo- cratic, too." This is typical of the thinly disguised anti-Semi- tism that begins to rear its stinking head (even in re- spectable places) disguised as "objectivity." Why? Item No. 13: I hold in my hand a publication called Swasia, which calls itself "a weekly digest of Southwest Asia and North Africa news focusing on the Israel-Pales- tine conflict, the Persian Gulf, and great power poli- tics, with translations from the Hebrew and Arabic press." It is published by the Middle East and Europe Working Group, Division of Overseas Ministries of the National Council of Churches. It's an innocent- looking publication. It does quote from both the Israeli and the Arabic press, but the Arab quotes are all anti- Israeli — and so are the quotations from the Israeli press. Why? Item No. 14: I hold in my hand copies of the Aramco World Magazine, the slickest publication (lit- erally) that I have ever seen. It must cost a fortune to publish. But of course Aramco (the Arabia Amer- ican Oil Company) doesn't have to pinch pennies, thanks to the repeated and unwarranted increases in the price of gasoline that we Americans are forced to pay. Aramco World Magazine is sent free to a select list of American opinion-makers. It pic- tures an Arab world with- out poverty, pestilence or problems — everything beautiful, happy and ser- ene. Item No. 15: I hold in my hand a copy of Link, pub- lished by Americans for Middle East Understanding — (How could anyone disa- gree with Middle East Un- derstanding"?) The direc- tors of this organization include the former commis- sioner-general of UNRWA which feeds Arab refugees; a former CARE director, a few rich oil men, and some Protestant and Catholic clergy. It is subtle poison, which I am sure is swal- lowed thoughtlessly by many "good people." Why? Finally, Item No. 16: Let me introduce Israel Shahak, professor of organic chemis- try at Hebrew University, survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Bergen-Bel- sen Concentration Camp ... a Jew, who seems to hate Is- rael. He wrote an article for the Israeli press, but the only Israeli paper that would print it was Zu Had- erech, the weekly paper of Rakah, one of Israel's two Communist parties. In it he holds up as a typical Israeli one Meir Har-Zion, who in a book told of his own terror- ist activity ... how much he enjoys killing an Arab, espe- cially with a knife, because he can then feel that he is a male. "He asks his commander for permission to kill an unarmed Arab shepherd, with a knife, and then de- scribes with sadistic enjoy- ment the way his comrades hold the Arab while he, Har-Zion, plunges the knife in his back and the blood splashes from the wound." Then this distinguished Hebrew University profes- sor writes: "I am not afraid to say publicly that Israeli Jews and with them most Jews throughout the world, are undergoing a process of Nazification. Does a people whose hero is Meir Har-Zion deserve any other title? Would we give another name to a people whose hero enjoys killing Jews with a knife and to see how the blood splashes? "Isn't it the Nazi Horst Wesel who spoke of the pleasure of Jewish blood dripping from his knife." On and on and on. Paragraph after paragraph of denun- ciation of Israelis in general by this Israeli professor. As a writer and a jour- nalist I am deeply devoted to freedom of expression. So what should Israel do about Israel Shahak? The Communist weekly pub- lished the article. Then Swasia (National Council of Churches) picks it up and re-runs it, for the ben- efit of millions of Ameri- can Protestants. Then Link picks it up from Swasia and reprints it and sends it to Senators, Con- gressmen and to those who feed the American public its news and opinions. Those are my 16 pieces of evidence. Please don't com- plain that I have not given you a "balanced" picture of the world. ..Of course there are somp',cheerful, encour- aging developments. But my task tonight has not been to play Pollyanna. Instead I have been trying my best to shock you out of any complacency which may possess you ... to warn you that your enemies (our enemies) are on the alp", well-financed, ever ab buy the services of su,ii once-mighty men as former Vice President Agnew, for- mer Secretary of State Rog- ers, former Attorney Gen- eral Kleindienst, men who shall be noted in history for their utter lack of princi- ples. My friends, we live in the most immoral age in the entire history of mankind. Imagine . . . the World Health Organization, UNESCO, ILO, the Human Rights Commission and other world bodies, with regard for neither logic, nor facts, nor morality, voting almost unanimously to con- demn Israel for this or that. Aren't you frightened? I am! Aren't you worried? I am! And so here is our con- ference keynote: crucial challenges. (I hope I've indicated what some of them are.) Rededication to survival — the survival of Judaism, the survival of Jewishness; even more than that, the survival of all those values which we Americans at least pre- tend to believe in. What to do about it? My suggestions: • Be wary. Be on your guard. Be alert to the dan- ger. Be warned that it could happen, there and here. • Support Israel in every way you can conceive of. Give to Israel. Lend to Is- rael. Go to Israel. You might get wounded in Zion Square, Jerusalem, or on Allenby Rd., Tel Aviv; but if you were to go instead to Los Angeles your chances of get- ting killed on one of their freeways would be even greater. (through • Organize your men's clubs) a cam- paign to alert hour fellow Jews to the dangers. • Try to devise ways to reach the general non-Jew- ish public hack home, not just with answers to distor- tion (as in that Detr.it News letter) but with:: tive facts — with an a r ...al in this Bicentennial Year for the Jewish right to life, lib- erty and the pursuit of hap- piness. As you do-battle against all the forces of bigotry, stupidity and immorality, know that you have a great many friends among the Goyim — goyim mean- ing, in its true sense, "those other people out there." Non-Jew though I am, I would not want to live in a world in which Israel could not exist and in which Jews could not continue to make their significant contribu- tion to mankind's climb from the mud to the stars.