2 Friday, December 3, 1976 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary The Records Are Opened: Truman, Marshall, Clifford Roles Revealed Not only because secret diplomatic engagements are usually secretly arrived at and therefore remain unknown, but because in democratic countries, if that label is to remain unchallenged, there are set rules for revealing the contents of the hidden documents that relate to such negotiations. In some countries it is necessary to wait half a century, and those involved never suffer the consequences of exposes. In this country it is 30 years. That is why some of the Franklin D. Roosevelt involvements became known in the mid- 1960s. The Harry D. Truman role is becoming known now. It is by way of the newest U.S. State Department volume of letters and documents relating to the re- birth of the state of Israel that the Truman role is now in the limelight. President Truman began to favor the Zionist cause. He had harsh words with some Zionist spokes- men but he overruled the opponents of statehood for Israel. Warren A. Austin, the chief U.S. delegate to the UN was so angry, he did not inform his associates from the U.S. at the UN about the Truman attitude. He just walked off and went home. Clark Clifford, then an important member of the State Department, advised Truman to recognize Israel. Robert A. Lovett, the as- sistant secretary of state, viewed such action as in- jurious to the United States. Secretary of State George Marshall actually threatened Truman. He said he would vote against him — that was in 1948 — if Truman recognized Israel. General Marshall's threat was made two days be- fore Truman emerged as the first to recognize Israel, giving the U.S. that historic glory, on May 14, 1948. The irony of it all is that General Marshall never voted in his life, and that Clifford is now one of the chief lobbyists in Washington for the Arab oil industry that is conducting a war against Israel. The question emerges anew whether in general terms it is still the most cogent advice to adhere to the Psalmist's admonition: "Al tivtekhu b'ndivim" — trust not in princes. But there is still a Truman in the chronicled re- cord of our history. Therefore, even the Psalmist is to be taken with a grain of salt. Israel's Dropouts Problem: Yordim Under Toleration Israel's problems are manifold. One of them is that of the Yordim, the departees who have remained in the United States, Canada, Australia and other demo- cratic countries where the economic advantages are much greater than in Israel. Naturally, the Israelis are concerned and dis- turbed over the dropouts. Diaspora Jews are even more upset about the tens of thousands who come for American benefits and remain here, cutting their ties with their nation. Emissaries from Israel are more tolerant. For example: the able educator from Haifa, Yael Rom, was compassionate. She regretted the breakaways but explained that she understood what Turning Back the Pages of History: When Truman Defied Opponents of Statehood for Israel . . . Pangs of Conscience at the UN and the UNESCO Fiasco By Philip Slomovitz motivates people to grasp the more affluent and more church were called Junitarians and the preachers of advantageous. Unitarianism were angered when Jews who became Generals Shaul Horev and Shaul Rosolio also re- their converts began to occupy front rows in their fused to be upset. In fact, they pointed to the Second churches and wanted to be First Readers) shunned the Aliya of the first decade of this century, the migration ideal. movement of which David Ben-Gurion and Itzhak Now it is the Unitarian Church and the similar Ben-Zvi were members, suffered from more than 90 so-called liberals in Christendom who are antagonistic percent dropouts. to Israel. It is now a matter of disturbance that the Mayor Abraham Beame of New York was even liberals are in the ranks of the anti-Israelis. Why? confronted with the problem when he visited Israel Indeed, why? with a group of mayors from major American cities Is this why a journalist who has been conducting a when he was asked how he viewed the presence in New harmful campaign against his own people on the York City alone of more than 100,000 yordim. Mayor ground of exaggerated liberalism towards the Arabs Beame replied that he hadn't heard about it and — David Shaham — is coming here to speak next anyway, with millions coming in and going out daily, a Tuesday for the Quakers at the First Unitarian mere 100,000 are a footnote, not a chapter, in current Church? Why doesn't he go to the Arabs to urge then New York history. and to plead with them to meet face to face with Jev. Israel would like to deal•in such figures, but must and Israelis and to make direct negotiations for peact, view with anxiety a 100,000 manpower numeral and amity? population-wise. Historically, however, and time-wise, What sort of "Fellowship" is this new advocacy? Mayor Beame is correct. Yordim remain a footnote, Why doesn't it have a word of encouragement from not an established fact, for a people battling to make Arabs? Why suddenly a new Palestinian campaign progress and to defy dangers to its very existence, and when the chief obstruction to peace is a magnifying of to the Jewish peOple whence that nation stems. suspicion and enmity rather than the creation of genuine good will? The UNESCO Developments: Pangs The Arabs welcome him when he attacks Jews and of Conscience and Realities Israelis and when it gets to brass tacks about meeting A conscience is a delicate matter. It haunted the with Israelis they back off. Is this the type of emissary and sponsorship by so-called liberals that will create a nations who ousted Israel from UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural respect for peace-seeking and peace-making? Pfui!. Organization. Israel was re-admitted. But immedi- Self-Ridicule at the UN: ately thereafter, at Nairobi, the Third World resumed Human Rights Under Derision antagonisms with abusive resolutions. Charges were made that Israel was abusing Arabs Israel's UN Ambassador Chaim Herzog expected in the occupied territories. The condemnations were too much when he warned the United Nations Assem- made before anyone could investigate, and investiga- bly not to invite ridicule by adopting the most recent of tions would confirm progress that was attained by the resolutions that were aimed, as he interpreted Israel, the human values that were introduced for them, at the destruction of the Jewish state. Arabs when Egyptian rule in Gaza was totally state- There is a source of satisfaction in the position of less. Studies would affirm that the best schooling is the Western nations, including the United States, who provided by Israel for the Arabs in her territories, that voted nearly as a bloc against the anti-Israel state- the Arabs have the right to travel and to enroll in ment. But the alignment of the Third World allies re- universities in Arab countries. While Israel was being mains a distressing factor for all who had hoped that abused the Good Fence Policy was retained on the there will be an element of reason in international Lebanese border. But the animosities remain and ap- relations. Some states are the size of Southfield, with a plicable to them is an old Yiddish saying: "Gey bet population less than Hamtramck, yet they have yeisher bah a kozack" — "Go, seek justice from a cos- equality with the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, France sack." That's the trouble: where there is hatred the and other nations. It is the one-vote power of the Third human conscience often awakens too late. World, and the domination of the oil-producing coun- tries, that is the cause for ridicule and for the nonsense The Liberals Who Abandoned that dominates the world organization. Friendships for Zionism What is yet to be learned by those ganging up to When Zionism was a dream-movement the liberal vote against Israel is that the Jewish state is not on Christians were in its corner. Unitarians were at the auction block, that Israel will not submit to a suicide, that the sovereignty attained with meetings and dinners of the American Christian forced labor, out of the historical legacy that is ineras- Palestine Committee which was headed intermit- much tently by Senators Vandenburg, Wagner and Taft. The able will not be abandoned. It is the hyprocrisy of the UN anti-Israel votes — Quakers were friendly to the movement. They had many against Israel surely do it with tongue in nothing to lose: few expected the dream of Zionism to cheek voting — that makes the vital Human Rights Day en- be realized. gineered by the UN for observance on Dec. 10 a sort of With realism came an aloofness. Unitarians and derision. Yet not all of the nations are fooled all of the Quakers and others became skeptics. Even the Jews time. Human Rights Day as an inspiration for global who admired Unitarianism (those who joined the decency remains an aspiration never to be abandoned. Amnesty International Criticizes Prisoner Repression and Execution By MAURICE SAMUELSON LONDON (JTA) — Many Arab countries are severely criticized in a massive catalogue of rep- ressions and execution of political prisoners in var- ious parts of the world, published here by Am- nesty International. The annual report by the 15-year-old organiza- tion says that more than 100 countries imprisoned people for their beliefs, and denied them fair and prompt trials in 1975/6. In many countries, the pris- oners were tortured or executed. The chapter on the Middle East, including Israel, says that Iran and Iraq give greatest cause for concern, followed by Oman, Syria and Libya. In Saudi Arabia, the Yemen Arab Republic and some Persian Gulf states, there is a lack of information about the plight of prisoners, due to intimidation of the popu- lation and legal profes- sion. Only Egypt and Israel sections. allowed Amnesty Interna- In Bulgaria, the report tional to send observers to deals with the cases of political trials in the past three . Jews who face death year. (In Israel, the trial sentences on espionage was that of an Arab nurse charges. Two of them had charged with membership their sentences corn- in El Fatah). muted.. Dr. Heinrich Spet- According to the report, ter was eventually allowed there are approximately to leave for. Israel. But 2,500 Arabs imprisoned in Solomon Ben-Joseph is Israel and the occupied still serving a 121/2-year territories for alleged jail term (reduced on ap- security offenses. How- - peal from 15 years). ever, the report fails to Last year, Amnesty confirm or deny allega- also heard of another tions of torture by Israel Jew, Nicholas Stefanov brought to Amnesty In- Chamurlisky, a clerk in a ternational's attention. cooperative, arrested in Israel also is the only Sofia in September 1974. Middle East country out He was charged with es- of the 33 states where the pionage on the basis of his Amnesty movement is contact with an Italian represented by a national Embassy employe section, although there through whom he sent are individual supporters letters to relatives in the in six. Arab countries. United States. In the Soviet Union, However, his arrest ap- where the leaders of the pears to be related to his Moscow group of Am- attempts to obtain a nesty International were passport and to his openly imprisoned or exiled at critical views. He was the end of last year, about sentenced to death and in 300 Soviet prisoners of February 1976 Amnesty conscience have been International appealed to "adopted" by Amnesty President Todor Zhivkov urging commutation of ports say they may have the sentence. The appeal died in prison. was heard by the Sup- The report also de- reme Court in March but scribes the cause of Ale- the result is not yet xander Leon Aronson, a known. Chamurlisky is Jewish male nurse from being held in the Vratza The Netherlands, who city prison. traveled to Iraqi Kurdis- In Iraq, where the inci- tan in the summer of 1974 dence of reported execu- to give medical assistance tions is probably the to the Kurds. He was ar- highest in the Middle rested in March 1975 fol- East, Amnesty Interna- lowing the Iraq/Iran ag- tional tried to intervene reement and sentenced to mainly on behalf of many death on charges of spy- Kurds and Shia Moslems. ing for Israel and acting Two members of the as an adviser to Kurdish tiny Jewish community leader Mulla Mustafa for whom it still works are Barzani. Shua Soffer and Akram The Dutch government Baher, who were arrested received confirmation in 1968 and 1969. only in mid-March 1976 Following the Iraqi gov- that Aronson had been ernment's adoption on executed three months Nov. 26, 1975 of a resolu- previously. Lion entitling all Iraqi In Syria, where Am- Jews who left Iraq after nesty International 1948 to return home and claims to know of 600 enjoy equal rights with political prisoners, it is Iraqi citizens under the currently working on 34 law, Amnesty appealed to individual cases. Of 286 President Ahmed Hassan untried detainees, 79 Al - Bakr for information have been arrested since about Soffer and Baher June 1975, including Mos- but-no reply has been re- lens brethren, Com- ceived. Unconfirmed re -munists, Nasserists, Palestinians and Iraqi- faction Baathists. Former President Nureddin Atassi, who suf- fers from diabetes, has spent the past six years in Al-Mezze military prison. He and other members of the former regime, also held there, have still not been charged or tried. No news has been re- . ceived of Albert Elia, former head of the Jewish community in Lebanon, who was abducted to Syria in September 1971' In Libya, from wher,,_ torture is increasingly reported, there has been a similar decline in human 'rights in the past year. In the face of dis- satisfaction with his rule, President Muammar Qaddafi has ordered the arrest of all his oppo- nents. Amnesty is working for about 40 Libyans ar- rested in April 1973 for membership in illegal political parties and still held despite a court order for their release in De- cember 1974.