2 Domini. S, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Escalating Anti-Israel Propaganda . . . The Campus as a
Source of Hatred and Misconceptions . . . Prof. Memmi,
as an "Arab Jew," Exposes the Secular Statehood Lie
By Philip
Slomovitz
The Truth: Pro-Zionist Status is Not Unanimous
Resentment of the inhumanities at the United Nations was widespread and impres-
sive. It should be admitted that it was not unanimous. The pro-Arab elements are, in the
main, so violently anti-Semitic that not even the banalities and fasehoods uttered at the
UN General Assembly on Kristalnacht UN Style, Nov. 10, will move them.
Facing the truth, the truth must be admitted that there is a handful of Jews to be
reckoned with. The Neturei Karta, that vile element in Jerusalem, with a sprinkling of
supporters in Brooklyn, won't stop at anything to revile Israel and Zionism. Its ally is the
remnant of the Council for Judaism. They write letters to newspapers to give expression
to opposition to the Jewish libertarian ideal. They revile and insist that not all Jews are
Zionists.
This is one element of trouble for the cause of justice for Israel and opposition to anti-
Semitism. There is, also, a factor in the universities not to be ignored. The haters of
Zionism who stem from the anti-Israel Near East departments in universities are at
work, quietly, spreading the lies that come from Arafat and Sadat, adhering to the misre-
presentations about Palestinians, insisting on a chopping up of Israel that must lead to
total destruction of the Jewish state.
If there is to be credibility for Jewish leadership, a more militant, more realistic,
more active stand will be needed to overcome the continuing hatred propaganda.
Jewish students are being misled by the adademic venom of Near Eastern depart-
ments.
Jews who seek a messiah or an end to Jewish liberties are adding fuel to the fires of
hatred.
A great responsibility devolves upon responsible Jews to seek a way to spread the
truth. It is a vital need in defense of Israel and Jewry and in the battle against anti.-
Semitism.
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The new shock from the UN, the glad hand extended to the terrorists to be partici-
pants in Middle East decisions, adds to the disgust over the panic that has developed
among statesmen (sic!). The representatives of the so-called free nations have submitted
to a new form of tyranny. They are enslaved by the threats from the oil producing barbar-
ians and the power-seeking Russians. Instead of affirming independence from the junglr
the diplomats are now leading a disgraced and humiliated humanity into the lowest forn'.
of bestial domination. One word arises as applicable to the bestialities at the UN:
SHAME!
The Canard About the So-Called Secular Palestinian State
Among the tricky canards emanating
Arab and indigenous to those lands well
from the ranks of Israel's-enemies is the
before the arrival of the Arabs, we
myth about a secular state. The knowledgea-
shared with them to a great extent lan-
ble either ignore it or laugh up their sleeves.
guages, traditions and cultures. If one
Imagine states that persecute the Kurds, op-
were to base oneself on this legitimacy,
press the Druze communities, discriminate
and not on force and numbers, then we
against the Copts and murder Christians in
have the same rights to our share in
Lebanon having the gall to put on a front of
these lands — neither more nor less —
living democratically with Jews. Think of na-
than the Arab Moslems. But one should
tions where there is slavery attempting to
remember, at the same time, that the
fool people into believing that they can es-
term "Arab" is not a happy one when
tablish a humane society with Jews whose
applied to such diverse populations, in-
sovereignty they avowedly seek to destroy.
cluding even those who call and believe
Does anyone really give any credence at
themselves to be Arabs.
all to the falsehoods emanating from the ter-
Now to the theme as it is outlined by Dr.
rorist ranks? In the same breath of speaking Memmi. The eminent "Arabist" thus defined
about a democratic secular state the fanatic the issue:
terrorists do not hesitate to state that Jews
The head of an Arab state recently
who settled in Eretz Yisrael would be sent
made us a generous and novel offer.
back to their lands of origin. They know
"Return," he told us, "return to the
what that means: they would expel Jews
land of your birth!" It seems that this
with Polish, German, Romanian, Hungarian
impressed many people who, carried
and other backgrounds into the infernos
away by their emotions, believed that
where their families had been sent to the
the problem was solved. So much so that
ovens by the Nazis.
they did not understand what was the
While the secularist claims are sheer
price to be paid in exchange: once rein-
nonsense, realism must be welcomed in ex-
stalled in our former countries, Israel
posing the falsehoods stemming from the as-
will no longer have any reason to exist.
pirants to a new holocaust for Jews. Albert
The other Jews, those "terrible Euro-
Memmi is an expert on the question of Arab-
pean usurpers", will also be sent back
Jewish relations. First, about Mdmmi him-
"home" — to clear up the remains of the
self.
crematoria, to rebuild their ruined
A pamphlet entitled "Who Is an Arab
quarters, I suppose. And if they do not
Jew?" by Dr. Memmi has been issued by the
choose to go with good grace, in spite of
Israel Academic Committee on the Middle
everything, then a final war will be
East. Malka H. Shulewitz, coordinator and
waged against them. On this point, the
publications editor of the Israel Academic
Head of State was very frank. It also
Committee on the Middle East, thus de-
seems that one of his remarks deeply im-
scribed his role:
pressed those present: "Are you not
Prof. Albert Memmi, born in Tunis
in 1920, is a prominent French writer, a
graduate of Algiers University and of
the Sorbonne, where he now teaches
sociology. He took part in a colloquium
with Colonel Qaddafi which was organ-
ised in Paris on November 24, 1973 by
four European newspapers.
Prof. Memmi's contribution to that
colloquium received wide publicity and
was reprinted by the Israel Academic
Committee on the Middle East in 1974.
In the original text, Prof. Memmi (who,
it should be noted, played an active role
in the struggle for Tunisian independ-
ence stated inter alia: "I have always
been a Zionist, and I have always seen
Zionism as the Jewish people's struggle
for national liberation. It is believed too
readily that the state of Israel was pro-
duced by the European Holocaust. But
in 1932, before Hitler came to power, at
a time when we had no idea of what Eu-
ropean Jewry was like, I was a militant
in the Zionist movement, in the (left-
wing) Hashomer Hatzair. In Tunisia we
were not in our own land, and Zionism
was the expression of our own national-
ism and of our desire for social and pol-
itical liberation."
First it is necessary to explain the term
Arab Jew. Dr. Memmi points out in a foot-
note:
The term "Arab Jews" is obviously
not a good one. I have adopted it for con-
venience. I simply wish to underline
that as natives of those countries called
.
Arabs like us — Arab Jews?"
What lovely words! We draw a se-
cret nostalgia from them: yes, indeed,
we were Arab Jews — in our habits, our
culture, our music, our menu. I have
written enough about it. But must one
remain an Arab Jew if, in return, one
has to tremble for one's life and the fu-
ture of one's children and always be
denied a normal existence? There are, it
is true, the Arab Christians. What is not
sufficiently known is the shamefully
exorbitant price that they must pay for
the right merely to survive. We would
have liked to be Arab Jews. If we aban-
doned the idea, it is because over the
centuries the Moslem Arabs systemati-
cally prevented its realization by their
contempt and cruelty. It is now too late
for us to become Arab Jews. Not only
were the homes of Jews in Germany and
Poland torn down, scattered to the four
winds, demolished, but so were our
homes in Arab lands as well. Objec-
tively speaking, there are no longer any
Jewish communities in any Arab coun-
try, and you will not find a single Arab
Jew who will agree to return to his na-
tive land.
I must be clearer: the much
vaunted idyllic life of the Jews in Arab
lands is a myth! The truth, since I am
obliged to return to it, is that from the
outset we were a minority in a hostile
environment; as such, we underwent
all the fears, the agonies, and the con-
stant sense of frailty of the underdog.
ASNIPIIMENWPIAP'•
As far back as my childhood memo-
ries go — in the tales of my father, my
grandparents, my aunts and uncles —
coexistence with the Arabs was not just
uncomfortable, it was marked by
threats periodically carried out. We
must, nonetheless, remember a most
significant fact: the situation of the
Jews during the colonial period was
more secure, because it was more legal-
ized. This explains the prudence, the
hesitation between political options of
the majority of Jews in Arab lands. I
have not always agreed with these
choices, but one cannot reproach the
responsible leaders of the communities
for this ambivalence — they were only
reflecting the inborn fear of their coreli-
gionists.
As to the pre-colonial period, the
collective memory of Tunisian Jewry
leaves no doubt. It is enough to cite a
few narratives and tales relating to that
period: it was a gloomy one. The Jewish
communities lived in the shadow of_
history, under arbitrary rule and the
fear of all-powerful monarchs whose de-
cisions could not be rescinded or even
questioned. It can be said that every-
body was governed by these absolute
rulers: the sultans, beys and deys. But
the Jews were at the mercy not only of
the monarch but also of the man in the
street. My grandfather still wore the
obigatory and discriminatory Jewish
garb, and in his time every Jew might
expect to be hit on the head by any Mos-
lem whom he happened to pass. This
pleasant ritual even had a name — the
chtaka; and with it went a sacramental
formula which I have forgotten.
A French orientalist once replied to
me at a meeting: "In Islamic lands the
Christians were no better off!" This is
true — so what? This is a double-edged
argument: it signifies, in effect, that no
member of a minority lived in peace and
dignity in countries with an Arab ma-
jority! Yet there was a marked differ-
ence all the same: the Christians were,
as a rule, foreigners and as such pro-
tected by their mother-countries. If a
Barbary pirate or an emir wanted to en-
slave a missionary, he had to take into
account the government of the mission-
ary's land of origin — perhaps even the
Vatican or the Order of the Knights of
Malta. But no one came to the rescue of
the Jews, because the Jews were natives
and therefore victims of the will of
"their" rulers.
However, if we accept the massa-
cres of the 20th Century (the pogroms in
Russia after Kishinev and later by
Stalin, as well as the Nazi crematoria),
the total number of Jewish victims
from Christian pogroms over the centu-
ries probably does not exceed the total
of the victims of the smaller and larger
periodic pogroms perpetrated in Arab
lands under Islam over the past millen-
ium. Jewish - history has so far been
written by Western Jews; there has
been no great Oriental Jewish histo-
rian. This is why only the "Western"
aspects of Jewish suffering are widely
known.
How would a secular state apply? Could
there possibly be co-existence where there is
Arab domination — because the abandon-
ment of Israel's sovereignty would imme-
diately place the Arabs in a dominant role.
Here is Dr. Memmi's conclusion to the Arab-
Jew issue as a definition of truth and as a
warning against gullibility:
Now it is no longer a question of our
returning to any Arab land, as we are so
ingeniously invited to do. Such an
idea would seem grotesque to all the
Jews who fled their homes — from the
gallows of Iraq, the rapes, the sodomy of
the Egyptian prisons, from the political
and cultural alienation and economic
suffocation of the more moderate coun-
tries. The attitude of the Arabs towards
us seems to me to be hardly different
from what is has always been. The Ar-
abs in the . past merely tolerated the ex-
istence of Jewish minorities, no more.
They have not yet recovered from the
shock of seeing their former underlings
raise up their heads, attempting even to
gain their national independence! They
know of only one rejoinder: off with
their heads!
The Arabs want to destroy Israel.
They pinned great hopes on the summit
meeting in Algiers. Now what did this
meeting demand? Two points recur as a
leitmotiv: the return of all the territo-
ries occupied by Israel, and the restora-
tion of the legitimate national rights of
the Palestinians. The first contention
can still create an illusion, but not the
second. What does it mean? Settling the
Palestinians as rulers in Haifa or Jaffa?
In other words, the end of Israel. And if
not that, if it is only a matter of parti-
tion, why do they not say so? On the
contrary, the Palestinians have never
ceased to claim the whole of the region,
and their succeeding "summits" change
nothing. The summit meeting in Al-
giers is linked to that of Khartoum
(1967), there is no basic difference. Even
today the official position of the Arabs,
implicit or avowed, brutal or tactical, is
nothing but a perpetuation of that anti-
Semitism which we have experienced.
Today, as yesterday, our life is at stake.
But there will come a day when th
Moslem Arabs will have to admit th
we, the "Arab Jews" as well — if that
how they wish to call us — have the
right to existence and to dignity.
A Q.E.D. presently deferred: Jews and
Arabs can live together, they can co-exist.
That is dependent upon equality of human
rights. Arab nationalism can not and will
not eliminate or obviate Jewish nationalism.
The attempt to confuse public opinion with
the secular state nonsense, with the failure
to admit that Israel is the only state in the
entire Middle East where all faiths and all
nationality and racial groups enjoy human
dignity and equality will not fool even the
least informed. The Arab canards are too
evident as total falsehoods to create even an
iota of distortion to truth wherever there is
a sense of truth, justice and fair play.