64 Friday, December 3, 1976 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Moshe Dayan's 'My Life': No Acceptance of Blame By Daniel Silverfarb Students of Israeli his- tory and politics have awaited the publication of Moshe Dayan's memoirs ("Moshe Dayan: Story of My Life" pub- lished by William Morrow) with considera- ble interest. Dayan has occupied key positions in the army or in the gov- ernment of Israel almost continuously from the creation of the state in May, 1948 to his final de- parture from the cabinet under public pressure in June 1974. Dayan led a commando battalion during the War of Independence in 1948, and he also served as mil- itary commander in Jerusalem. He was army chief of staff during the Sinai Campaign in 1956, and he sat in the cabinet as defense minister dur- ing both the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kip- pur War in 1973. Dayan received much credit for Israel's great victories in 1956 and 1967, but inevitably he was shouldered with much of the blame for the serious losses suffered by the Is- raeli army in the opening stages of the Yom Kippur War. Ultimately, he was dri- DAVID BEN GURION - yen from office because of these setbacks, and at the moment his political career in Israel looks very bleak. Dayan's memoirs pro- vide a valuable inside look at many key aspects of recent Israeli history. Especially interesting is Dayan's account of the negotiations which he conducted at the end of 1948 with the Jordanian commander of the Arab part of Jerusalem, Ab- dulla el-Tel. El-Tel proposed on be- half of King Abdulla that Jordan return the oc- cupied Jewish Quarter in the old city of Jerusalem to Israel in exchange for the Arab Katamon Quar- ter in the new city. Dayan does not indi- cate whether this propo- sal would have involved Israeli access to the Wail- ing Wall, though this seems quite possible in view of its proximity to the Jewish Quarter. Unfortunately these negotiations, which might have resulted in an enduring and reasonably equitable solution of the Jerusalem problem, came to nought because Prime Minister David Ben- Gurion was not willing to yield the Katamon Quar- ter. The negotiations failed also because Ben- Gurion was opposed to a partial arrangement and instead held out for a full peace treaty between Is- rael and Jordan which, however desirable in theory, was probably not obtainable in practice at that time or indeed at any time since. Another revealing sec- tion of this volume is Dayan's very detailed ac- count of the preparations for the Sinai Campaign in 1956. Dayan .points out that Ben-Gurion was ex- tremely reluctant to agree to the operation, because he feared heavy casualties in the army and also among civilians from Egyptian air at- tacks on Israeli cities. Furthermore, Ben- Gurion did not like the fact that Israel would have to commit the initial act of war and then fight Egypt alone for two days before Britain and France joined the cam- paign. Ultimately, it was Dayan who persuaded Ben-Gurion that it would be folly to pass up this op- portunity to fight Egypt in alliance with the Euro- pean powers. Dayan ar- gued that if Israel did not go to war now together with Britain and France, she would soon have to fight Egypt alone and unaided under much less favorable circumstances. Even when Dayan dis- agreed with Ben-Gurion, he always viewed the prime minister with great respect and admiration. Dayan believes that Ben-Gurion ranked far above Israel's other polit- ical leaders because of his outstanding leadership abilities and his long range vision. A Note About the Reviewer Dr. Silverfarb, the reviewer of the Moshe Dayan autobiog- raphy, held assistant professorial posts at Mercy College in Detroit and Milton College in Madison, Wis., where he now makes his home. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Silverfarb of Southfield. He earned his BA at the University of Michigan, his MA at Wayne State University and his PhD at the University of Wisconsin. He specialized in preparation for his Doctorate in Modern European History and he did more than a year's re- search in London, England in Middle East history. He visited Israel several times, pursuing his research on the Middle East. Dayan is much more critical of Levi Eshkol, Ben-Gurion's successor as prime minister, espe- cially for his failure to act firmly and decisively in 1967 when President Gamal Nasser blockaded the straits of Tiran and sent a large Egyptian army into Sinai. Dayan advocated an immediate military re- sponse, but Eshkol equivocated for several weeks in a futile endeavor to resolve the crisis with- out war while the Egyp- tians used this period to strengthen their position in Sinai. Dayan was not as close to Golda Meir as he was to Ben-Gurion. However, Dayan and Rabin in 1967 Dayan has high regard for Golda Meir and his re- lations with her were straightforward and di- rect during the five years which he served in her cabinet. There was not a trace of the bitterness or devi- ousness which one might have expected in the rela- tionship between two who had been bitter political enemies before Dayan became defense minister in 1967. Dayan's account of the Yom Kippur War is not as satisfying as other sec- GOLDA MEIR tions of the book, perhaps only a few hours before because in this instance the combined the success of his policies Syrian assault. Egyptian- was less evident. If, as seems likely. _ Dayan stubbornly re- Dayan does not return to fuses to accept any blame a position of responsibil- for the bitter defeat and ity in Israeli politics, it heavy casualties suffered will be in no small meas. by the Israeli army in the opening stages of that ure because he obsti- conflict. He maintains nately refused in the face that the responsibility for of considerable evidence these setbacks rests sol- in 1973 to challenge his ely with the military own pre-conceived notion leadership of the country that the existing balance of power was sufficient to at that time. While this contention deter the Arab nations may be true in a strictly from attacking Israel. However, what is most technical or legal sense, most observers find it dif- disconcerting is not Day- ficult to understand how an's error in this matter but rather the fact that the defense minister even now he appears un- could bear no responsibil- able or unwilling to admit ity for the condition of the error and engage in any army and its unfavorable form of self-criticism. deployment at the outset While a healthy degree of the conflict. In the period immedi- of confidence in one's own ately prior to the Yom judgment is certainly a Kippur War Dayan was so desirable characteristic completely convinced in political leaders, an ex- that the Arabs would not cessive amount of self- attack that he refused to righteousness bordering . order full mobilization of on conceit is a fault which the reserve forces, even at times can have very se- on the morning of Oct. 6 rious consequences. Biography of Hitler Admirer Raises Furor By MAURICE SAMUELSON (Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.) LONDON — A literary furor has broken out here over a biography of Unity Mitford, a glamor- ous member of a British aristocratic family who was one of Hitler's most ardent admirers. After failing to suppress the book, which brings out the late Miss Mitford's hatred of Jews, members and friends of her family launched bitter personal attacks on its author, David Pryce-Jones, and its Jewish publisher, Lord Weidenfeld. (Pryce-Jones is half-Jewish.) Leading the assault is one of Unity Mitford's sis- ters, Lady Diana Mosley, wife of Sir Oswald Mosley, former head of the B _ ritish Union of Fascists. The emotion of Lady Mosley and her relatives is partly attributable to the manner of Unity's death — she shot herself in Munich on the day Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. Her suicide attempt failed and • she lived on until three years after the war before dying of her wounds at the age of 34. Pryce-Jones told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he could not remember a "more dis- gusting" wave of abuse against an author than that which he had encountered over the Mitford book. Asked why he thought Lady Mosley and others had tried to suppress it he answered simply: "Guilt." Anti-Semitism has been fairly prevalent among the British upper classes before the war in as much as they felt under threat and it was preferable to back Hitler rather than Stalin. If that meant getting rid of the Jews, it was too bad but with people like Unity Mitford, destroying the Jews was a positive ad- vantage, Pryce-Jones added. His book recalls that she wrote to Julius Streicher's "Der Stuer- mer," "I hate all Jews. I want everybody to know I am a Jew-hater." On the outcome of the German take-over of Austria, a number of Jews were forced to drift down the Danube without food or money for weeks. Unity Mitford's comment was: "That's the way to treat them. I wish we could do that in England to our Jews." But her sister, Lady Mosley, replies that such statements before the war broke out were on a par with harmless asser- tions like "I loathe Americans" or "the only good German is a dead German." Even so, she goes on to protest that Unity's anti-Semitism was "completely differ- ent" from the attitude of Mosley and herself. "Racialism was out of the question for someone in British politics at a time when Britain was ad- ministering a vast multi- racial empire," she as- serts. It is left to another re- viewer of the biography to point out the close per- sonal links of Lady Mosley and her husband with the Nazi leadership. Indeed, it was the wife of Goebbels who helped to arrange her secret mar- riage to Mosley in Ger- maIly in 1936. She was later interned in June 1940 under the British Emergency Defense Regulations and, like Mosley, not released until late in 1943. The attack on Lord Weidenfeld is also made in the review columns of a weekly magazine. Its au- thor is Lord Lambton, a high-born Conservative peer, who quit Edward Heath's government nearly five years ago after scandalous revela- tions about his private life. He had been one of those who tried to have the book altered or sup- pressed. Reviewing it in the Spec- tator, Lord Lambton ac- cuses Lord Weidenfeld of "a shocking betrayal of the dignity and moderation with which the Jewish race reacted to their terrible sufferings in the last war." They had practiced truth and fairness, he says. However, Lord Weiden- feld had published a book "attempting to pin politi- cal responsibility upon a reckless young girl. Not content with dis- cussing the book, Lord Lambton heaps ridicule on Lord Weidenfeld, sag ing he was recently enno- bled "for politeness to Sir Harold Wilson and Lady_ Falkender" ec- retary), that he do, not enjoy reading but deals with books "as a butcher with joints of meat: his sole consideration, the clearance of his stocks." " Lord Weidenfeld has contented himself so far with only a curt reply: "I am quite satisfied as to the accuracy of David Pryce-Jones' book and the quotations it contains. Lord Lambton is clearly a master of the art of abuse. but when it comes to ac.-- curacy and integrity, his views cut no ice with me."