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Any Value to the Political Platforms? . . . How Will
the Elected officials Treat Them? A Carter Comment
Merits Attention . . . Controversial Koestler Khazar Theory
By Philip
Slomovitz
Viewing Anew the Effectiveness of Party Platforms and Candidates' Adherence to Them
The last word has not been said on the validity of party platforms and on the
candidates' adherence to them.
It is generally assumed that what the politicians say at their conventions is for public
consumption and for a small measure of dispute during the campaign; and that the party
platform generally is meaningless. The Democratic candidate for President was quite
blunt on the subject. He was interviewed by the New York Times roving foreign
correspondent C. L. Sulzberger and he asserted himself on a major plank in his party's
platform.
Sulzberger deviated from previous routines and instead of reporting from a
European or Afro-Asian capital he went to Plains, Ga., to talk to Jimmy Carter. The
Democratic nominee for President talked about the party platform and he had this to say
to Sulzberger:
PLAINS, Ga. — Jimmy Carter doesn't pretend the foreign policy planks of
either political party represent mandates laying down an international
program to be followed by the next elected president.
He contends: "No administration can completely adopt the platform drawn
up by his party. After all, I didn't control the Democratic platform committee. I
cannot blindly accept all of it.
"Many things depend on how the world develops. Take the plank that
would pledge us to move our Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Well,
I'll certainly consider that if I'm elected. But I can't commit myself ahead of
time."
But there are matters either unmentioned or only touched upon in the
Democratic platform on which Carter has already taken a personal position he
intends to carry out — if the voters give him the chance. Among these is a
determination to remove our diplomatic representation abroad from the U.S.
political spoils system.
"If I am elected, you can depend on that," he told me. "When I took a
European trip some time ago only a small percentage of our ambassadors were
trained, competent people. I am and have been disgusted by this.
"I know of cases where we are represented by ambassadors who don't.
speak the language or know the country to which they are assigned, but only
got the assignment through political influence at home. That will terminate."
In contemplating gaps in American foreign policy methods and goals,
Carter indicated that the U.S. had waited much too long and not gone far
enough in appreciating the relationship between black African national
aspirations and this country's actual racial composition.
He added: "In a heterogeneous nation like ours with a population of mixed
origins, we should have a great advantage in dealing with many lands. There is
growing commitment among U.R. black leaders to strengthen bilateral
relations with black African countries.
"It is obvious we must improve relations with virtually all developing
nations. We must heal bad relationships that now exist and, bilaterally, seek
out our common goals. If we should ever have to face a future war —
everyone hopes will never be the case — our links and our trade with Thin.
World countries would be vital. Yet right now we can't get more than 20 percent
of them to support us in international forums."
Obviously Carter doesn't pretend to have specific answers to all questions
facing the United States as its third century commences. He is admittedly
uncertain about the phenomenon of so-called "Eurocommunists" — the
Western Marxist parties approaching political power, as in Italy.
On another delicate point, I asked Carter if he didn't think it would be wise
to exchange ambassadors with the Vatican, acknowledging it as a temporal
state as well as religious center.
He replied, "Personally, I have no objection to such a move."
This is a candid declaration. It substantiates the suspicion that resolutions adopted at
public rallies — political conventions are, after all, mass rallies — are not as binding as
would be expected.
Granted that party platforms are mere proposals, the need often arises to remind the
platform makers and the politicians for whom they were framed of the necessity to
adhere to them.
Carter may be right in his view that the time element often indicates the necessities
for strictness in adhering to pledges.
Is the Jerusalem plank really so serious? Many Israelis will laugh it off.
Pragmatic Israelis will point out that Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a fact of
history and a reaffirmation by the present-day Jewish state and that political talk does
not change the realities of time. But the Democratic platform has the Jerusalem plank.
Now Jimmy Carter comments like a State Department official rather than as a
presidential candidate. Yet his candor is a welcome factor in the debates that are certain
to mark an anticipated tight race for the highest office in the land.
Politics on Agenda . . . Loose Talk Will Be Unavoidable
Politics is on the agenda and it will dominate the news columns, with infiltrations
into the commentaries on the developments. Political talk will be unrestricted and some
candidates for political offices may be expected to blunder as they blabber.
Take for instance the lengthy remarks by the Republican candidate for the U.S.
Senate, Marvin Esch. In his attack on Democratic opponent Donald Riegle, he couldn't
find a better argument than to liken him to Bella Abzug, who is a candidate for the
Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in New York.
The angered who were quick to call this commentator minutes after Esch's speech
interpreted it as prejudice against the New Yorker and they viewed it as uncalled for.
Presently Esch, Riegle and Abzug are fellow members in the U.S. House of Represen-
tatives. In that august house prejudice would undoubtedly be denied.
Nevertheless, the laugh may be at Esch because his speech sounded as if he was
running for the Senate against Abzug rather than Riegle.
Be that as it may, every campaign has its elemental charges, its suspicions, the
unnecessary interpretations of prejudice which at times is applied to fear of anti-
Semitism. In the long run, the blunders by politicians are mere human frailties. In search
for jobs, they talk. In reality, the average office seeker does not base his quest for a high
post on prejudice. Perhaps most of the political chatter could be interpreted as mere fun
at the voter's expense. •
Koestler's Unproven Khazarian Jewish Theory Under Guise of `Shalosh-Esre'
Arthur Koestler has a remarkable_
record for literary achievements in exposing
the Russian tyrannies, in analyzing kibutz
life in Israel, in his campaign against capital
punishment in England.
As a member of kibutz he had written a
work that created controversy. That's when
he adopted an attitude that could be defined
as being akin to that of David Ben-Gurion
many years later. He did not accept Zionism
as it was propagated because his view was
the advocacy of realism that those who
desire survival as Jews must settle in what
was then Palestine.
He warned against the Russian menace
in his revelations of the horror that
emanated from an ideology which
stimulated children to squeal on their
parents who were under suspicion of dis-
loyalty to the Kremlin.
A persistent effort to end capital
punishment brought him fame in the
recognition that his "Reflections on
Hanging" did more to cause the ban on the
death penalty than anything else. Thus his
"Darkness at Noon" as an expose of Com-
munism and his numerous other books gave
him great significance as an author
searching fora facts and pursuing an ideal.
His skill as a researcher is evident anew
in his latest book, "The - Thirteenth Tribe"
(Random House), but unfortunately a good
work on the Khazars emerges as a fantasy
imbedded in sensationalism, resulting from
an attempt to develop a theory that is
historically fallacious.
Koestler drew upon a fact of history —
that the Khazars adopted Judaism. Beyond
that there is less to back up the imaginative
in the Koestler book. The effort to develop
Khazaria as the home of the 13th tribe is as
ridiculous as the rest of the book is im-
pressive and based on research of a very
important era and a significant power that
functioned from thz! Sixth to the 11th Cen-
East European Jews may be the leftovers of because they are not even Semitic because
turies.
the Khazars who had become Jews. But they stem from the Khazars. It was then
Full credit should be accorded Koestler Koestler fails entirely to indicate that there treated with derision. Now Koestler repeats
for tracing, admirably, the geographic, were flourishing Jewish communities in the that theory of falsehood. But he really
political, social and especially the military era of the collapse of Khazaria in East doesn't play the Arab game because he sees
records of Khazaria's expansion and European countries. As a matter of fact, in the re-establishment of Israel the
triumphs. The Huns, the Arabs, many con- there were Jewish settlements under Ger- problem-solving answer for Jews and
flicting tribal groups were fought successful- man rule and Yiddish developed as the humanity. On that score he isn't even such a
ly.
had guy when he confuses Jews with
language of East European Jewries.
There was the search for a religion.
There may be justification for branding Khazars.
Christianity was rejected because the rulers
Having disputed the Koestler Khazar
the Koestler theory as ludicrous when he
of Khazaria would not submit to the suggests that anti-Semitism is groundless theory, there is an added obligation to credit
Vatican. The Muslims lost their bid out of since Jews may not be Semites at all but the distinguished author of the controversial
refusal to submit to the Caliphates. There offspring of the Khazars. Since nothing book with acknowledgement of some very
were no such dangers in Judaism. Besides, about an effective Judaism in Khazaria is basic contributions to serious considerations
when confronted with Christians and proven by Koestler and certainly there is no of tire Jewish position in the world today.
His addendum to the Khazar study, a
Muslims, each in turn rejected the other and indication that the Khazars had been
each in turn preferred Judaism either to transformed into the East European Jews, brief chapter on "Israel and the DiasDora,"
makes a strong case for the Zionist icea. It
Christianity or Mohammedanism, as the. the entire theory is fallacious.
case may have been while the conferring
Curiously, sensation gained an adherent also disparages orthodoxy and he won't have
much joy from criticism in that sphere of
with the two religions was conducted;
in the New York Times reviewer of "The Jewish
life. „
So, the Khazars adopted Judaism. But Thirteenth Tribe," Fitzroy Maclean, who
Even as impressive is his "Race a
in all his research, and in the excellencg of sang the glories of Koestler. He even secured
his analyses, Koestler has no record of actual type to headline his review in Hebrew with Myth" chapter in which he shows that Jews
practicing of Judaism in Khazaria or of "Shalosh-Esre," Hebrew for 13. What are not a race, that they have an inbreeding
effective influences of Jewish customs on the qualifies Maclean to write as an authority on that makes them a heterogeneous people. In
life of Khazaria.
Jewish migrations and Jewish history? Much Israel, for example, as he indicates, the
The only truly impressive contact less than Koestler , who at least cpmpiled nation is composed of citizens who show the
between King Joseph of Khazaria and Jews excellent geographical and historical data in traits of every race and nation on earth.
was the correspondence with Hasdai Ibn his book but who should not be permitted to
While differing with Koestler on his
Shaprut, secretary of the Caliphate of spread as fact a theory filled with false Khazar theory, it is only fair to say that in
Cordoba. Is it possible that such a cor- assumptions.
its, entirety he has written so challenging a
respondence could have been written in
Several years ago an Arab hate- story, one based on so much research, that
Hebrew? Koestler qualifies it by stating that spreader said in a speech in the United his "Thirteenth Tribe" merits high praise as
the correspondence may have ben between Nations that Jews have no right to Israel a literary and historical gem.
Joseph's and Hasdai's secretaries. The proof
is not convincing.
There is no proof anywhere, in Koestler
Experienced registered
BROOKLINE, Mass. — largest hospital in Israel,
or any other writings about the Khazars, The nursing shortage in the Chaim Sheba Medical surgical nurses who are
that they know Hebrew or had mastered Israel is acute and The Center.
interested in spending a
Jewish lore. In Koestler the strongest Jewish American Physicians Fel-
Board and room will be year in Israel, starting
aspect ascribed to King Joseph and his lowship has been re- furnished at the hospital, Jan. 1, are requested to
subjects is the belief in the Jewish view of quested by the au- and salary will be on the contact the APF, 1622
messianism.
thorities in Israel to cam- Israeli pay scale. Round Beacon Street, Brookline,
At any rate, the sensationalism and the paign for 10 to 12 surgical trip air fare will be paid Mass. 02146 as soon as
possible.
nurses to work at the from New York to Israel.
, mythology is in the assumption that the
Israel Seeks American Surgery Nurses