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2 April 23, 1916 .
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS"
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Purely Commentary
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Eliav Stirs a Hornet's Nest With
Arye
Peace Proposals and Palestinian State Support
But Fails to Get a Single Arab Handshake
By Philip
Slomovitz
`Liova' Eliav, 'Breira' and the Arabs: Will the Olive Branch Remain Rejected?
Arye Eliav had his many years of genuine popularity in Israel. He served as general
secretary of Histadrut, was his country's ambassador to Russia and was prominent in
many other important roles. He is known affectionately as "Liova" and his sincerity is
unquestioned.
Now he has acquired what may Well be reduced to notoriety that usually comes to a
man when an important columnist popularizes him for his views. Anthony Lewis did it
for him in the New York Times and the Lewis article, syndicated, drew additional atten-
tion in many other communities.
The sensation is in the views of Eliav, that Israel must withdraw from presently
administered territories, that peace will be possible- only with the establishment of a
Palestinian state on the West Bank.
In other words, "Liova" advocates drastic concessions and he has aroused strong op-
position. But he also enjoys some support and he did not come to his presently sensation-
alized views overnight or suddenly. He has held them for many years. He expressed them
in an important book issued by the Jewish Publication Society of America, "Land of the
Hart."
Moshe Dayan also proposes withdrawals. He urges abandonment of some territory
on the Golan Heights as a way of assuring some sort of accord with Syria. But he does
not go as far as Eliay. The latter has joined the "Breira" movement of semi-leftists who
acceded to many concessions to the Arabs. Eliav has advocated such commitments to
Arab pressures long before there was a "Breira" movement.
Is it workable? Is there some sense to the Eliav proposals?
He let the cat out of the bag a while ago when, in an interview that received considera-
ble attention he not only urged the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank
but urged concessions which the majority of Israelis consider intolerable: In the process of
proposing his solutions Eliav commented that the Arabs must meet the Israelis half way.
This is where the dog lies buried. This is the chief obstruction. While Israelis like Eliav
and Jews in the "Breira" movementAre willing to give up a great deal, not a single Arab
has as yet come forward with an acceptance of the proferred olive branch. Not a single
Arab has offered a handshake of friendship to Israel or to Jewry. Arabs keep pontificat-
ing that they, too, are Semites and that they are only opposed to Zionism. In the process
they have made anti-Israelism synonymous with anti-Semitism. The Semites in the Mos-
lem world have become the arch anti-Semites on the global scene.
Eliav's sincerity has become an advocacy of unrealism. If there were a single Arab to
share his and his associates' views there would be considerable hope for progress in mak-
ing peace. These peace lovers in Moslem ranks are not available.
There was an Ihud movement in pre-Israel Palestine. It was a movement that propo-
gated peace with the Arabs — a peace which at that time, in the 1930s and 1940s would
have meant an elimination of Israel. Dr. Judah L. Magnes, Henrietta Szold, Prof. lk' ;n
Buber and other dignitaries belonged to that movement. They failed to get a singli 4b
response even in the era when the re-emergence of Israel was a mere dream. This rejection
of the proferred hand of peace by Jews to Arabs continues to this very day.
Therefore, the Eliav image vanishes into impossible dreams. If and when he gets a
response from Moslems that they will support his call for a true peace there will be cause
for sincere treatment of his ideas. , Until that time he remains the dreamer. Would that
he were correct in his hopes! Right now we deal with Eliav impossibilities that have
developed into impracticalities.
Simon Wiesenthal's Challenge: A Detroit Pilgrim's Special View
Should Nazis Be Forgiven?
of the modern Holy Land of Israel
Forget and forgive often Holocaust. The search is for
become flippant terms and justice, not vengeance, and
the sensitive may try to it is affirmed in.the two-fold
merge them. But, does one task of telling the story,
forgive and then forget? Is a testing the verdicts and as-
Nazi criminal to be for- serting the attitudes of the
given? Will the Nazi era judges in the social and
thereby be forgotten?
moral testing.
Simon Wiesenthal, for 32
Confronted by the dying
years a Nazi hunter, himself Nazi who seeks forgiveness,
a survivor from five concen- Wiesenthal walks out: he
tration camps, poses the can personally forgive, but
questions in a new novel. It's can the entire people who
a brief story, but the book is suffered from Nazism for-
two-fold: one portion is the give? Can the individual who
story itself as personally forgives speak for the entire
experienced by the noted suffering people?
author who is the organizer
That's how the issue is
and director of the Viennese tested by the participants in
Dokumentationszentrum, the sympossium headed by
the late Abraham J. Heschel
and including Msgr. John M.
Oesterreicher, Cynthia
Ozek, Prof. Milton R. Lon-
vitz, Rene Cassin, and oth-
ers of eminence who pursue
the theme as introduced,
primarily denoting it as a
challenge to individuals,
with emphasis on the fact
that a forgiver can not speak
for all who were, or still are,
affected.
In a foreword to "The
Sunflower," Rabbi Barry
Dov Schwartz assays the
conclusions and states:
"The value of this brief
volume is not in the story it
tells, but in what it doesn't
tell, what it relegates to the
conscience of the readers,"
says Rabbi Schwartz.
"Ironically, it is Simon Wie-
senthal who, by engaging in
the apprehension of the
guilty serves as a sunflower
. . . to those who perished
in torment. He and others
like him are seeking justice
— not revenge — for those
who inflicted the worst
crimes known in the annals
of mankind."
Arab Terrorists May Have
Role in Latin Kidnappings
SIMON WIESENTHAL
the Documentation Center
in Vienna, whence have
come scores of revelations
about Nazi criminals, many
of whom have been brought
to justice through the ef-
forts of Wiesenthal.
The new novel, "The Sun-
flower," (Schocken Books),
is all of 98 pages. But there
is a second section — an
additional 112 pages — and
that's a book in itself, a
compilation of views by emi-
nent scholars and social
thinkers on the issue basi-
cally raised in "The Sun-
flower": whether one should
forgive when the criminal
begs it.
The title of the book was
selected by Wiesenthal be-
cause the sunflower func-
tions symbolically as the
periscope which brings light
into darkness of the graves
of those who perished in the
NEW YORK (JTA) — The
kidnapping on Feb. 27 of
William Niehous, general
manager of Venezuelan op-
erations for Owens-Illinois
Glass has cast light on the
role of Arab terrorists in
Latin American guerrilla
activity, according to the
Anti-Defamation League of
Bnai Brith.
The Venezuelan govern-
ment announced on April 6
that it would nationalize the
company after Owens-Illi-
nois paid for the publication
of the terrorists' political
manifesto as a condition for
Niehous' release.
The manifesto, which ap-
peared as a half-page adver-
tisement in leading papers
in the United States and Eu-
rope, charged that the com-
pany was plundering the
country and the working
class. It concluded with a
statement of support for the
Arabs: "We definitely sup-
port that just cause of the
Palestine Arab people who
decidedly oppose 'Yankee
imperialism and its lance
point Zionism."
Rabbi Morton M. Rosen-
thal, director of the ADL's
Latin American affairs
department, said that
Venezuelan journals have
linked the Niehaus kid-
napping to a group called
the "Latin American Pol-
itical Bureau."
Its existence and schemes
for wholesale kidnapping
were uncovered by Argen-
tine police authorities last
December following the ar-
rest and interrogation of
Ismael Haieck, an Argen-
tine national who under-
went terrorist training in a
Palestinian refugee camp in
Lebanon.
A search of the building
in which he was arrested led
police to discover equipment
for forging documents and
printing propaganda for the
Arab League and the Mon-
toneros, an Argentina ter-
rorist organization. Also
found was a radio transmit-
ter with which Haieck was
able to communicate with
terrorist bases.
By MARY E. RIORDAN
(Editor's note: The fol-
lowing article by the presi-
dent of the Detroit Federa-
tion of Teachers appeared
in the April 6 issue of the
union's magazine, the De-
troit Teacher.)
Neither words nor pic-
tures nor books prepared
me for all I saw and learned
in my recent visit to Israel.
Members of the Executive
Committee of the American
Federation of Teachers were
guests of the Israel Teach-
ers Union during the last
two weeks of March in an
attempt to give us an over-
view of the country, its
problems, and the tremen-
dous strides made toward
their solution.
in discussion with Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin
ranged from Israeli national
problems and American re-
lations to those of the
schools which are consid-
ered second only in import-
ance after attainment of
peace and restoration of the
land. Like Americans, the
Israelis believe that through
education the young will
have opportunity in the fu-
ture — without it they will
be lost.
A fascinating exchange
took place between us
Americans and the prime
minister concerning sala-
ries, hours and working con-
ditions for teachers with a
few words adroitly slipped
in now and then by the pres-
ident of the Israel Teachers
Union, Sholom Levin, who is
about to begin negotiations
on a new contract.
Startling far beyond de-
scription is the transforma-
tion of the land
from desert to
flourishing
garden and
orchard or
vineyard by
irrigation
through a na-
tion-wide sys-
tem whose
Mrs. Riordan original source
of water is the Jordan River
and the Sea of Galilee.
We had a number of op-
portunities to visit class-
rooms, first in a kibutz,
and later in both Hebrew
and Arab schools. One
class, on being questioned
as to country of origin of
either the student or his/
her parents, identified 18
separate national groups!
Just thinking about the
problem of communicating
under such circumstances
made our heads swim.
Tree planting is almost
a religion among the peo-
ple, who through the
planting and nurture of
literally millions of trees,
are restoring the land from
waste to "milk and
honey." •
All students learn three
languages as a matter of
course. Depending on the
students, either Hebrew or
Arabic is the first language,
and English is always the
third. A surprising number
learn other languages too.
Like all visitors of note,
we were permitted to begin
a new "forest" which is dedi-
cated to the American Fed-
eration of Teachers. Grow-
ing on a hill facing
Jerusalem, we planted the
first 15 or 20 cypress trees
which will be multiplied by
other teachers who follow
us until it is in fact a forest
on what is now rocky, bar-
ren land.
More than an hour spent
Quite aside from lan-
guage problems, schools in
Israel are very much like
schools I've visited in other
countries both in Europe
and South America — kids
are kids the world over and
teachers seem to have simi-
lar problems.
According to official state
literature, Israel's principal
aim today is to achieve
peace with its neighbors
based on secure and agreed
borders. All the people we
met and talked to reflected
that same aim.
Never have I heard such
dedication on every side to
the necessity of working to
obtain peace.
Perhaps the most fasci-
nating part of the entire
visit was the opportunity to
visit - and walk through the
cities and towns I've only
read about from earliest
childhood in both the Bible
and other history books.
We didn't see the walls of
Jericho (no one has located
them yet), but we did visit
Jericho and actually walked
through the old walled city
of Jerusalem to the holy of
holies for Christians, for
Jews, and for Moslems.
It was most impressive to
see the respect demanded by
Israel for the shrines of all
three faiths. Certainly it
was a thrill to walk from the
Garden of Olives down
through the Way of the
Cross, then to visit the
Western Wall of the Jews,
and finally the El-Aqsa
mosque — all in the space of
a few hours.
Bethlehem, Nazareth,
Ceasarea, the Dead Sea,
Meggido, Beersheba, Mas-
sada . . . the list is end-
less. From the most an-
cient of ruins to modern
cities like Haifa,
was left out th
we
wanted to see.
At various times, w,e_,were
dinner guests of Y' • zam
Meshel, General Se‘_.,tary
of Histadrut (General Fed-
eration of Labor), and Elad
Peled, General Director of
the Ministry of Education.
We visited private homes as
well as institutions. We vis-
ited and discussed and
looked until we were dizzy
with it all.
We've come back with a
clearer view and new deter-
mination to do as much for
what we believe as do those
who hosted us so well in Is-
rael.