THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July .20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
•ALAN HITSKI, News Editor . . HEIDI PRESS. Assistant News Editor
Sabbath Seript oral Selections
-
This Sabbath, the 19th dayOf lyar, 5737, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus-21:1-24:23. Prophetical portion, -Ezekiel 44:14-31.
Candle lighting_ Friday. May 6.8:18 p.m.
VOL. LXXI, No. 9
Page Four
Friday, May 6,1977
Stirring Ambiguities for Israel
Diplomats who toy with pledges and com-
mitments have a way of clouding the issues
and of creating atmospheres for escapes from
being bound to adhere to obligations. What they
do is create ambiguities in patterns that enable
them to take either side in an argument and to
vacillate from obligation to obligation without
fulfilling either.
This would be a harsh accusation had it not
been for the experiences involving the Middle
East and the declarations often made in such
vague terms that one wonders how long the
delays in actions on the vital issues can be
dragged in the international arena.
Discussing the current situation in a study of
the PLO involvements and the American atti-
tude, in an article in the Nation magazine,
Mark A. Bruzonsky points to ambiguity as one
of the means of confusing the issue. He states:
"At the moment the intention in Washington
is to promote a degree of ambiguity which,
while it puts the parties on notice, publicly
allows them to make their own interpretations.
What specific proposal the United States will
soon decide to prombte remains uncertain,
much depending on how the Palestinians re-
spond during the next few months and on the
preparations of inter-Arab diplomacy for Gen-
eva.
"The Carter administration has definitely
kept its option to advocate a sovereign Palestia-
nian state. Since (his) Clinton (Mass. speech)
Carter has been quoted as saying that the Pa:
lestinian problem will have to be resolved with-
in "the framework of the nation of Jordan, or
by some other means"—another attempt to cre-
ate as much ambiguity as possible. since
"some other means" can refer only to a sepa-
rate Palestinian state, possibly linked to Jor-
dan in various ways."
Of course, this is not new to diplomatic juggl-
ing. The visit of King Hussein for conferences
with President Jimmy Carter, last week, was
an indication that the vagaries of statemanship
are not limited to the ambiguities affecting Is-
rael. There is a juggling of issues whenever
power politics creeps in to create suspicions
and to infuse confusions.
With Israel there are other matters to create
tensions. The constant threat of pressures by
the United States always causes renewed anx-
ieties, and the angers that are inflated as a re-
sult of it always cause additional controversies
and an undermining of confidence in-diplomatic
pledges.
Pressures arouse resentments and cuase
more uncertainties in relationships such as the
American-Israel cooperativeness than anything
else. That is why Dr. Arthur Hertzberg, Ameri-
can Jewish Congress leader, warned in a re-
cent speech:
"As long as the national covenant of the PLO
insists on refusing to recognize Israel's right to
exist," he said, "moderation does not exist.
Arafat has demanded the right to dream of a
secular state in Palestine. But some dreams
are Unacceptable. Hitler's dream of destroying
the Jewish people was unacceptable. Arafat's
dream. which means destroying the Jewish
state, is equally unacceptable."
This may be too simple a solution or con-
clusion. In the process of negotiations nations
make concessions, and in Israel's instance
there surely will be a measure of withdrawal
from administered territories that were added
to Israel to create secure borders. But the deci-
sions must be based on proper negotiations.
They can not come from pressure and they
must be based on firmness and pragmatism.
Ambuguity threatens to postpone amicable
agreements. Therefore, those who create ambi-
guities, including the President and the State
Department, Thereby add- to tensions.
Dilution of Anti-Boycott Legislation
An outcry against the immorality of the Arab
boycott of Israel, which inevitably became a
discriminatory act against American Jews as
well as against non-Jews doing business with Is-
rael, appears to be dwindling into a weakening
voice which may become an easily-pigeonholed
whisper.
_ While the U.S. House of Representatives has
adopted what appears to be a strong measure
prohibiting discrimination in international
trade, the U.S. Senate's version is threatened
with dilution.
Therefore it becomes increasingly vital that
the facts should not be hidden.
An important import-export firm operating
under Jewish auspices in Ann Arbor received
"instructions," outlining "conditions on the op-
eration of the boycott.", The lengthy annota-
tions include the following:
"Supplier wishing to participate in the Ten-
der should not own any factory or firm or any
office in Israel and should not be cooperating
with any institute or company relating to any
Israeli member or firm."
The instructions come from "Modern In-
dustries Corporation" in Damascus, Syria, only
one of a number of operating agencies pressing
the boycott on behalf of the Arab states.
No one has disputed the unity among Arabs
in their demands that Israel and Jewish firms
be boycotted in the overall task to destroy the
Jewish state. The need for similar unity to over-
come the menacing immorality of the boycott
_must not be destroyed. The pressures, as they
have been exposed here by Senator Donald
Riegle,, come from prominent Americans.
Therefore the equally prominent libertarians
must unite their forces not to permit dilution of
decency in this country.
President Carter's consistent advocacy of hu-
man -rights and the controversies that have
arisen from such humanitarian demands have
created international interest. Is the opposition
to any attempts to stifle Israel with boycotts,
whatever the form, any less biased? The out-
rage accompanying the efforts to discriminate
against Jews in the aim to destroy Israel must
be fought as vigorously as the inhumanity of op-
pressions against minorities, wherever these
symptoms of injustice may occur.
JPS Published Volume
Syrkin's 'Blessed is the Match'
VindicatesResistancetoNazism
There was resistance to Nazism. It was not a secret, although to
this day the bravery of many who refused to submit to the Hitler ter-
ror still has to be vindicated. Marie Syrkin was among the first to
gather and or provide the evidence about the courageous Jews who
mobilized to aid the oppressed, who enrolled in the ranks of the un-
derground and the ghetto fighters. Her "Blessed is the Match" was
among the first, if not the very first, of the works that deal with the
resistance factually, revealing the unmatched courage shown against
great odds.
Her "Blessed is the Match" was issued by the Jewish Pub-
lication Society of America in 1947. The Jewish state was yet to be
reborn. Therefore, the heroes who were interviewed by Miss Syrkin
for her book were yet to emerge as the courageous state-builders
who fought against the destroyers of the People Israel so that Israel
the State should become a reality.
The major character in this great book is Hannah Senesch. As a
young girl she had enlisted as a paratrooper, went to Hungary as
part of a task force determined to rescue fellow Jews from the
Nazis. She met her doom at the hands of the Hitler tryants, but'her
name is inerasably inscribed in Jewish history among the most no-
tabie heroes of the resistance.
Hannah, as a teenager, on the eve of her departure for Hungary
with the volunteer rescuers of Jews from the Nazis, wrote impres-
sive poetry. It was from one of these poems that Marie Syrkin bor-
rowed the title of her book. Translated from the Hebrew, these are
the famous lines written by Hanna Senesch:
Blessed is the match that is consumed
in kindling flame:
Blessed is the flame that burns
in the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop
its beating for honor's sake.
Blessed is the match that is consumed
in kindling flame.
Reuven Dafni, who was a member of the parachutists' group
who dared go behind -the Nazi lines with_Hanna Senesch for the
cue mission, who later assumed important consular and foreign mh.
istry posts for Israel. and who inspired American audiences in sup-
port of Israel, is among the heroes in the 'Syrkin book.
- Significant here is the role of Zivia Lubetkin, a survivor of the
Warsaw Ghetto Revolt, who went to Israel to play a significant role
in the building of the state. Another heroine of the resistance record-
ed here is Haya Grossman. The story of Abba Kovner, the noted
poet, is in the list of these heroes.
Then there is the story of Joel Brandt who met with Adolf Eich-
mann to discuss rescue plans— when Eichthann asked money and
tricks in exchange for blood.
Marie Syrkin's is an historic book. It is a tribute to the heroes.
Reprinted as a paperback. with a new epilogue that defines some of
the subjects dealt with originally. its classic significance is retained
30 years after its original printing.