54 Friday, January 28, 1977 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Arab Peace Offensive: Smoke-Screen or Indicator? By GIL SEDAN JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Arab world may be deliberately throwing up smoke-screens and sow- ing confusion. Or it sim- ply may be unable to reach any degree of unity with respect to future peace negotiations with Israel. In any case, Israel's leaders and political analysts are having a dif- ficult time making sense of the bewildering array of contradictory state- ments that comprise the so-called Arab peace of- fensive. For example:- Two weeks ago, Egypt's foreign minister, Ismail Fahmy, let it be known that his government would demand Israel's withdrawal to the 1947 partition boundaries. Two days later, Fahmy's boss, President Anwar Sadat, told a New York Times interviewer that he was ready to give Is- rael any guarantees it wanted— provided that it withdrew first to the pre-June 1967 lines. Then, Sheikh Moham- med Ali el-Jabarri, the former mayor of Hebron, returned from a visit to Jordan claiming the right of the West Bank popula- tion to self-determination. The people of the West Bank, not the PLO must have "the first word to say" about their fate, he long-standing belief that declared, speaking, pre- all Arab statements must sumably, with the bless- be taken with a large ings of Jordan's King Hus- grain of salt. sein. But who expresses the But a day later, Hus- Arabs' true intentions? sein signed a joint decla- Sadat or his foreign ration with Sadat favor- minister.? Jaabari, a re- ing a separate Palestin- tired politician who is a ian state on the West sentimental favorite but Bank. no longer a political influ- Then, before the riots in ence in his home town or Egypt, Sadat was quoted the Hashemite King who by reporter C. L. appears to have reversed Sulzberger: -- himself and now supports "The importance of the the PLO? American role—and no Apparently the Arabs other country can equal are trying to lay the it—is that the U.S. is Is- groundwork for a joint rael's lifeline. For arms, stand when the time comes for food, for budget de- to reconvene the Geneva ficits. conference. Their efforts "If the U.S. is really in- are expected to culminate terested, it can have peace in March when the Arab there within a month. (The heads of state are sched- implication is that Wash- uled to meet in Cairo to ington could force its will finalize their "un- on Israel.) We, Egypt and derstandings." Israel, don't have confi- The recent meetings dence in each other—but between Sadat, Hussein in the United States." and President Hafez Sadat also told Assad of Syria appear to Sulzberger, He said: "I'll have resulted in a com- be asking President Car- mon position on the part ter, Congress and the U.S. of the three confrontation public for help. After all, states. The next two the Soviet Union has re-_ months probably will :be- placed all Syria's arms devoted to trying to ex- and added heaps, and tend the concensus to the America has done the more extreme Arab re- same with Israel. We gimes of Iraq and Egyptians hold the bal- Muamar Qaddafi of ance of peace—yet we are Libya. refused help by both But if the Arabs are sides." joining forces to squeeze These contradictions concessions out of Israel, seem to bear out Israel's it is hard to understand how they hope to achieve this by their current smokescreen tactics. And if they do adopt a united stand on the eve of a re- sumed Geneva confer- ence, the conference may fail to materialize be- cause Israel will not ac- cept the terms demanded by the united Arab front. The joint communique by Sadat and Hussein in- dicates some of the diffi- culties that may arise. It speaks in favor of a sepa- rate Palestinian delega- tion at Geneva, a co-equal with the other Arab dele- gations and the "legiti- mate rights of the Pales- tinians,- including the right to establish an in- dependent political en- tity." Israel is not likely to ac- cept these terms. In fact, recent reports that such influential Americans as Prof. Zbigniew Brze- sinski, who is Presi- dent Carter's national se- curityiadvisoz:, now a Palestinian state bol-. sters Israel's opposition. What needs examina- tion is the new Jordanian support for a Palestinian entity. The Daily Tele- graph of London reported that Hussein would soon meet with PLO chieftain Yasir Arafat, their first meeting since Jordan de- stroyed the PLO presence within its borders in the bloody battles of Sep- tember, 1970. The Jordanian position is easier to understand in the context of internal Arab politics. Hussein is preparing the groundwork for greater involvement on the West Bank, not as an in- terested party but as a patriotic Arab leader car- rying out the mandate given to him by the entire Arab community. The joint communique speaks of an "indepen- dent political entity" but also mentions Sadat's re- cent proposal that a for- mal link should exist be- tween Jordan and a fu- ture Palestinian state. Hussein, not surpris- ingly, welcomes the idea. Although Arab am- biguity has created a di- lemma for Israel, official reactions to the Hussein- Sadat communique were positive. Foreign Minister Yigal Allon told the Israeli Cabinet that Jordan was again given a role in the Palestinian issue, despite what Allon described as lip service to the 1974 Rabat summit meeting. Political analysts noted that although there was reference to a Palestinian state in the joint com- munique, there was no reference to the PLO as "the sole representative of the Palestinians," a figure of speech con- tained in the Rabat reso- lutions. "Anything that brings Jordan back into the Pal- estinian issue is positive since it is the Israeli posi- tion that the Palestinian question must be an- swered in the context of negotiations with Jor- dan," Israeli political sources said. The Israeli view is that Jordan is enjoying a comeback in the Arab world. Sadat does-not want to see Jordan t 'y in the Syrian camp--or does Hussein want to tie himself entirely to one camp. Israel believes that a final settlement on the West Bank is possible only through negotiations with Jordan and regards the Sadat-Hussein com- munique as a step in that direction. On the other hand, the fact that the moderate Hussein offi- cL—) cially endorses a separate Palestinian delegation to the Geneva talks is viewed with concern since Israel will not accept such a pro- vision. If this turns out to be part of the united Arab stance it may well become the main obstacle to re- convening the Geneva conference. It is expected to be the subject of talks between Middle East leaders and the new American administra- tion. 1 Warsaw's Famous Cantors and the Tlomacka Street Synagogue By MOSHE RON Jewish News Israel Special Correspondent Students studied Judaica. They attended lectures given by Prof. Schor and the famous TEL AVIV — The illus- historian of Polish Jewry trious great synagogue in and manager of the War- Tlomacka St. in Warsaw saw rabbinical seminary was the spiritual and re- "Tochkemoni" Prof. Meir ligious center of the Bolobon. The ' Library of Jewish intelligentsia and the Institute was full of members of the middle books and old, rare manu- and upper class of the scripts. biggest Jewish commu- Common people did not nity in Europe. attend the "aristocratic" In this synagogue synagogue and Orthodox Rabbi Moshe Jehar gave circles boycotted it be- speeches in Polish in cause people spoke Polish favor of building the there, not just Yiddish. country of o u r But many surrounded forefathers. He quoted the synagogue on holy the Jewish sages in He-- days with the hope to get brew. into the building and listen Guests from Eretz Is- to the famous hazzanim, rael, who came to Poland Gershon Sirote and Moshe as emissaries of the na- Kussowicky. Polish tional institutions and policemen on horses kept, funds, were received on order, and the synagogue the Sabbath and holy ushers, clad in top hats and days with blessings by formal attire, and the stout the Chief Rabbi. warden Gonshar watched On the beginning of a on the steps, that no one new school year, hundreds would enter the building of children and pupils of without an entrance ticket. the Jewish high schools fil- The prayers of the fa- led the synagogue. The mous hazzanim in the atmosphere was solemn. Tlomacka Synagogue All pupils came with the were always an attrac- flag of their schools and tion, not only for the per- Prof. Moshe Schor ad- manent visitors but also dressed them and urged for the guests — high them to treat their teach- ranking Jews and high ings seriously in order to Polish officials — who become the future genera- were invited by their tion of the Jewish intel- Jewish friends. ligentsia. Hazzan Gershon Sirote In the court of the great acted like a synagogue stood the "primadonna" at times. building of the High In- He disappeared from stitute for Jewish Wis- Warsaw on the eve of one dom, which was recog- Rosh Hashana, and vis- nized by the Polish Minis- itors to the synagogue try for Education as an read in the newspapers affiliate of the University that Sirote had gone to of Warsaw. New York. me and said, "We are going to Eretz Israel, but only for a visit, not for public_prayers and con- certs". When he got to Eretz Israel Kussowicky sub- mitted to the pleas of his admirers to give some concerts and lead public . J451,0*65,,,, ,S> Bernard Altshuler Warsaw's Tlomacka St. Synagogue After some arguments, Sirote was finally fired and Moshe Kussowicky engaged as chief hazzan. I remember a nice episode during the Nile Prayer by hazzan Sirote. He became ecstatic, his voice reached a high pitch. He lengthened the prayer, it became dark, but Sirote carried on. One of the ushers approached him and showed to him his watch. Sirote became angry and raised his voice even more, like a roaring lion. The audience was fasci- nated. After the prayer, many people congratulated and embraced him with tears in their eyes. To the Yom Kippur services of Kussowicky came famous Polish sin- gers from the Warsaw Opera, like Digaz Gros- sinsky and others. They often said that Sirote and Kussowicky were worthy of being proclaimed "in- ternational" singers and they were sorry that the two had become haz- zanim instead of opera stars. I remember an episode after which Moshe Kus- sowicky came to Eretz Is- 'rael. It was in 1934, when the famous singer Yosef Schmidt visited the Tlomacka Synagogue. After prayers, Kus- sowicky invited Schmidt and some friends to his house --for "kidush". Schmidt told them that he intended to visit Eretz Israel. He asked Kus- sowicki if he had already been there? Kussowicky answered that he would like to go there, but Moshe Dan- sigerson (Ron) is to be blamed for it, because he doesn't help him. Schmidt reacted, "Haz- zan Kussowicky, it is not fit that the chief hazzan of the Tlomacka Syna- gogue has never visited Eretz Israel". Kussowicky took out his passport handed it to Bernard B. Altshuler, a supervisor with the Michigan Employment Security Commission, died Jan. 24 at age 55. Born in Russia, Mr. Altshuler was the direc- tor of the MESC's WIN program. He was a member of Temple Israel and its men's club and a board member of the temple school board. He resided at 27336 Selkirk, Southfield. He lea7es his wife, Syl- via; two sons, Jeffrey and Gordon; and a daughter, Lisa. prayers. He then visited Eretz Israel yearly. In the 1960s, I was sent by the Israeli Journalists Association and the Is- raeli Foreign Office to an international convention of journalists in Warsaw. I visited Tlomacka St. Only part of the former great synagogue stood. In it I found the Jewish Historical Institute. There were historical pictures and documents about Polish Jewry, which numbered 3.5 mil- lion before the Holocaust. Rabbi Mindar, 81, Ex-CCAR Head MINNEAPOLIS (JTA) — Rabbi Albert G. Minda, a pastpresident of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and spiritual leader of Temple Israel here from 1922- 1963, died Jan. 15 at age 81. A former internat Ll vice president of '-c-ne World Union for Progres- Rabbi Schindler sive Judaism, Rabbi is Re-Elected Minda was born in Hol- NEW YORK (JTA) — ton, Kan. He was gradu- Rabbi Alexander 'M. ated in 1918 from the Schindler has been University of Cincinnati unanimously re-elected and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College in chairman for a second year term of-the Confer- 1919. Rabbi Minda was active ence of Presidents of Major American Jewish in civil and religious af- fairs in Minneapolis Organizations. Urban League and of the Jewish families made city's Round Table Con- their way into Gary, In- ference of Christians and diana's sand dunes and Jews. swamps along with the In 1940 the Minnesota earliest pioneers, and in Territorial Centennial September, 1908 the first Commission named him Orthodox Jewish house of to the list of 100 great liv- worship was dedicated. ing Minnesotans.