2 Friday, August 20, 1976

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Purely Commentary

Arsenals of Death: the
Wholesalers of Munitions

As far back as World War I there were expressions of
concern over the growth of the munitions industries
throughout the world. "Merchants of Death" is the way
they were described. Now the vast arsenals that are being
built up with munitions available from many countries are
even greater cause for anxiety. What else could possibly
lead to another global conflagration?
An editorial in the New York Times entitled "Mindless
Arms Sales" pointed to the projected $10 billion arms deal
between this country and Iran and to other deals in deadly
weapons and stated:
The emergence of the completing the first
United States as the chief strategic arms limitations
arms supplier to the Third treaty (SALT I) in
World, selling more Moscow. The Senate staff
weapons abroad than all found no evidence of
other nations combined, significant Administration
has been attributed study in advance of the
primarily to concern over decision.
Eighteen months later,
the balance of payments.
But critics also have the decision's impact was
puzzled over the apparent- transformed by a four-fold
ly mindless character of increase in Iran's vast oil
this program, which has revenues — and its ability
seen arms sales jump from to pay for expensive ad-
about $1 billion in 1970 to vanced weapons systems.
more than $10 billion in Yet, as Iran's military
each of the past three orders soared, neither the
years. Nixon nor Ford Ad-
ministrations ever re-
That mindlessness has
evaluated that spur-of-
now been confirmed by a
the-moment policy.
Senate subcommittee staff
Arms sales to Iran
study of Iran's purchases,
started the practice of
which the Shah evidently providing Third World
urged Secretary Kissinger countries with arms so
last week to permit him to new that they were still
expand further in barter entering the American
for oil. "U.S. arms sales to forces when shipments
Iran, totalling $10 billion abroad began — a far cry
since 1972, have been out from the hand-me-down
of control," Senator arms trade of the past.
Humphrey, chairman of
The Senate study points
the subcommittee, has out that Iran will be
warned.
dependent on thousands of
President Nixon, the Americans on the ground
study shows, made the in- for 10 years or more to
itial decision "to let Iran handle procurement,
buy (virtually) anything it fin a nc e, logistics ,
wanted" in conventional maintenance and training.
arms during an overnight Iran will be unable to go to
stopover in Teheran in war "without U.S. sup-
May 1972 — on his way port on a day-to-day
home, ironically, from basis."
These warnings are basic to the entire issue of ar-
maments. The criminality of expanding the manufacture of
deadly weapons is evident. Is the United States the chief
culprit? One serious fact must be acknowledged. If the U.S.
does not sell arms to the big customers the weapons will be
available from Russia, Czechoslovakia, France and Great
Britain. Therefore, the problem is universal and much more
tragic than depicted in the NYTimes editorial.
Is Israel a party to this sinful situation? Isn't she
sharing in the guilt by continually mobilizing? The answer
is a simple one: What is Israel to do, submit to destruction
by those receiving so many planes and tanks and guns that
are pointed to Israel's borders? Is Israel to be denied the
right to self-defense?'
Who, therefore, will provide the solution to this
problem? It's unavailable in the United Nations that was
founded to be an instrument for peace and has instead been
transformed into a tool for bigots and for brutality. The
international organization actually faces bankruptcy when
human values are concerned. Humanity is in trouble and in
a mess.

Tefilin as Political Tool

Jimmy Carter's religious views and devotions con:
tinue to serve columnists and news analysts as means
of probing the Democratic candidate for President and
of speculating on the attitudes of
the voters. Now the Democrat is
gaining religious fervor even in
Jerusalem.
An NANA story sensationally
reveals that the Georgian former
governor has mishpaha — family
relationships — in far-off
Jerusalem, that he has a kinsman
who could be a Chabad leader there
inspiring Jews to put on their Tefil-
in. The NANA story merits quotation.
CARTER
It follows:
JERUSALEM (NANA) — Each morning except
on the Sabbath, an Orthodox Jewish youth in his
early 20's puts on two small, cube-shaped leather

Arsenals of Death, the Merchandising of Weaponry,
Competition That Makes an International Industry . . . S.
African Agonies . . . Tefilin -as a Carter Amulet

squares, one on his forehead, the other on his arm
(attached with leather strips) to say his morning
prayers.
Near the end of the service, he offers a special
prayer of his own: he asks Heaven to grant Jimmy
Carter victory in the November presidential elec-
tion.
David Braunstein, a former U.S. serviceman
who now attends Jerusalem's famed Yeshivat Ohr
Somayach-Tanenbaum College of Jewish Studies,
has good reason to want Jimmy Carter to be presi-
dent of the United States. The Democratic nominee,
a Southern Baptist, is his first cousin once removed.
Jimmy Carter's mother, Miss Lillian, has a sis-
ter named Elizabeth. An evangelical Christian,
Elizabeth nevertheless married a Jew, Louis
Braunstein. They had two sons, Jack (a Southern
Baptist like his mother) and Samuel Louis Brauns-
tein (who converted to his father's faith).
Sammy (as a Carter spokesman says the candi-

By Philip
Slomovitz

date's first cousin is called by the family) married a
Jewish girl from- San Antonio named Jo Ann Stein.
They now live in Huntington, Conn., where Sammy
practices law. David is their son.
Born in New Orleans and raised in San Antonio,
David did not have much of a Jewish upbringing.
The turning point in his religious life came
while serving with the U.S. Army in West Germany,
after attending a couple of Texas colleges. A chap-
lain with whom he had become close urged young
David to spend a year at a yeshiva (Hebrew day
school) pursuing religious studies.
David tried to enroll in a yeshiva in the United
States but could not. He then decided to go to Israel
and pursue his studies.
The Republican- candidate can fight for votes, b
has he a competitive weapon to Tefilin? Chabad
Lubavitcher and the devout Tefilin-lawyer: take note of
available converts in the GOP who may wish to match the
Democratic weapons and advantages.

Equating for Deviltry . .. Rhodesians' Dangerous Boast

Nothing could possibly be deadlier than the equating of
the impossibilities. The Israeli triumph at Entebbe in
Uganda inspired the Rhodesian invaders of Mozambique
to gloat and rejoice, to return to Rhodesia to drink cham-
pagne and to boast that their battle against guerrillas —
300 were reportedly killed by the Rhodesians — was akin to
the Israeli triumph against the Arab terrorist hijackers.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is
that the Israelis were saving lives while the Rhodesian
whites were aiming to justify the continued racially
destructive policy against the blacks.
What is happening in that part of the world could
emerge into a world crisis. It might affect the attitudes of
racially divided communities everywhere.
In Cape Town, one of the recent scenes of struggles
between whites and blacks, white students demonstrated
against governmental prejudices. There is a white minority
in South Africa, led by. Helen Suzman and her associates,
whose aim is to induce abandonment of prejudices against
the black majority.
There is an approach of midnight in that part of the
world and in the race relations that threaten wholesale
casualties. Hope is nurtured that it is not too late, that the

dominant whites will bend their pride of superiority and
will proclaim a solution which may be in their hands.
The 4,000 Jews in Rhodesia and the 117,000 Jews in
South Africa are a part of the white problem. The former
are a section of the 270,000 whites among 6 million blacks;
the latter are a small group amidst the 4 million whites who
are confronted by 18 million blacks. A solution is needed for
all of them. For Jews, the problem may be more involved
because they are so rooted in their lands professionally and
industrially; because so many are dedicated to the cause of
justice for the blacks and they may therefore be targets
from both factions: a redeemed black may not be able to
differentiate between whites, and the tragedy in the
involved issue is that to blacks all whites are the oppressors
and in time of crisis they do not differentiate.
Furthermore, if an emigration problem should arise
the difficulties will mount, although the availability of
Israel as a haven of refuge is a blessing in this age that has
witnessed the end of Jewish national homelessness.
For humankind, for the races involved, for the
persecutors and persecuted, the hours of danger demand a
solution based on abandonment of the prejudices that had
led to the subjection of the non-whites. The solution can not
come too soon.

Menacing Palestinian Myth . .. Newspaper's Lack of Reality

Regardless of the factionalism of the
Without fear for the term Palesti-
nian, its widespread usage should be Lebanese war and the brutalities that
treated with realism. To begin with, have developed — it's a tragedy
it's a myth. There never was a Palesti- deplorable in all civilized quarters! ---
nian state, therefore there were no the fact is that the PLO that has
such things as Palestinians in the emerged as the fomenter of the
image now portrayed. The troubles in Lebanon is a small group of
Palestinians who are a fact of history troublemakers not wanted in the
were the Jews of the Holy Land along enlightened Arab quarters. But the
with their Arab neighbors, Moslems Detroit morning newspaper, in an
and Christians, who lived there. Those editorial Sunday, kept repeating an old
who now claim a statehood emerged canard that seems to have become its
after the rebirth of Israel as an enemy editor's way of judging the Middle
horde desiring to destroy Israel. This East issues, with a repeated intent to
new breed was ousted from Jordan, it point a finger of blame at Israel.
isn't wanted in Syria, as has become Commenting on "The Tragedy of Tal
evident in recent months, and the Zaatar" the Free Press injected its
Lebanese Christians want them out.
usual sour note about Palestinians

expelled by Israel, thereby repeating
an old lie, without clarifying that
Arabs had fled from reborn Israel in
spite of the Jewish appeals to them to
remain in the land and to share
statehood with them; and giving the
impression that the role of Israel in
Middle East history is accountable for
the Lebanese crisis. It is not only a
lack of realism which keeps
motivating Free Press editorial opi-
nion, but the bit of venom accom-
panying those views that may spread
the poison of anti-Israelism instead of
encouraging peace between Arabs and
Jews. An attitude like that of the Free
Press also fails to contribute towards
an end to the Lebanese fratricide.

Ford's M.E. Credo ... and His Esteem for Kissinger

As standard bearer of the Republican Party, incumbent President seeking re-election and as a parliamentarian with
an established record of friendship for Zionism and Israel, Gerald R. Ford's latest views on this aspect of his foreign
policies not only merits but demands attention.
In an article published two weeks before the Republican National Convention in Family Weekly, President Ford is
quoted
President Ford reiterated his support for Israel: "Our support of Israel is unchanged and unfailing," he
declared. "As evidence of this, in the past two fiscal years I have requested over $4.3 billion in military and economic
assistance for Israel. This is more than 40 percent of all U.S. aid to Israel since its birth in 1948. On the other hand
in negotiating for peace in the Middle East, our policy is not to impose a settlement or to seek one-side
concessions."
Of added interest is President Ford's high tribute to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, in the same Family
Weekly article.
The President praised Henry Kissinger as being "an outstanding Secretary of State . . . (whose) diplomatic
efforts on behalf of the United States have contributed greatly to world peace. I am proud of my foreign policy which
has brought us to a position of highest leadership in the international

•

community and has kept us at peace. As I have said repeatedly, I would
like Sec? etary Kissinger to continue in my Administration, carrying out
my foreign policy."
In a Meet the Press TV interview last Sunday, Vice president NelAon
Rockefeller, questioned about Kissinger, said, "He is the greatest Secretary of
State we e‘ 9r had!"
Does ti is also add to the refutation of one of the major targets of hate in
American political history, the bogeydom of anti-Kissingerism?

FORD

.

In any event, the Ford position is clear on Israel and Kissinger as well.
Whatever now happens in the campaign for the Presidency, perhaps bigotries
and vile rum( ,rs can be abandoned and the candidates judged honorably and
without rancor.

KISSINGER