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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
IIITSK 1 . , News Editor . . 11E11)1 PRESS. .1ssist ant News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 25th day of Sivan, 5737, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 13:1-15:41. Prophetical portion, Joshua 2:1-24.
Thursday and June 17, Rosh Hodesh Tammuz. Numbers 28:1-13.
Candle lighting. Friday. June 10. 8: 19 p.m.
VOL. LX XI, No. 14
Page Four
Friday, June 10, 1977
Jerusalem on American Agenda
Prior to the Presidential election, during and
after the Democratic and Republican Party con-
ventions, there were the doubters who warned
that many of the party platform planks weren't
worth the paper they were written on.
On one such plank, at least, new testing now
is in order. It relates to Jerusalem as the capi-
tal of Israel.
As a member of the House of Representa-
tives, before he was named Vice President,
Gerald Ford strongly advocated the acknowl-
edgement of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The
U.S. is one of the nations which still retains its
embassy in Tel Aviv. As candidate for Presi-
dent, Mr. Ford still was biding his time on the
Jerusalem issue, apparently unable to negate
State Department policies to correspond with
his deepest feelings on the Jerusalem question.
But the Democratic platform was firm in sup-
port of moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
On the basis of the 1976 Democratic pledge,
the Zionist Organization of America has re-
newed the Jerusalem question with a petition
which will surely be signed by many thou-
sands, urging President Jimmy Carter to ascer-
tain the seriousness of his party's commitment.
In the circulated petition, the ZOA defines the
issue clearly by stating: "Move United States
Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem—the Cap-
ital of Israel."
Addressed to President Carter, the appeal for
action asserts •
"We recor
and support the established
status of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,
with free access to all its Holy places provided
to all faiths. As a symbol of this stand, the U.S.
Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Je-
rusalem."
F.
Perhaps the renewal of concern in the matter
of Jerusalem is one of the vital necessities at a
time when the Middle East issues have become
entangled in many uncertainties. No matter
what the decisions will be in the Israel-Arab
disputes, and Israel's consent to any or all deci-
sions will be absolute necessities in all tiegotia-
tions, Jerusalem can never again be a divided
city. There are differences of opinions in mat-
ters of territorial designations in Israel, but not
on the question of Jerusalem. The Holy City
can not be sundered again.
The pledge is on the record and its retention
may serve as means of recapitulating the
American pledges for strengthened U.S.-Israel
friendships.
The Democratic Party has obligated itself to
Israel and to the Jewish people on the Jerusa-
lem question. The President declared himself
bound to the Democratic Party platform when
he campaigned and then triumphed to become
the President of this great nation. Now a moral
duty devolves upon those who acted as Demo-
crats and are now called upon to fulfill their
duties to the existing pledges as citizens and as
members of the nation's governing body.- Is it
too much to ask the President to act promptly
in the fulfillment of recorded pledges?
Understanding Begin : Facts Clarified
An unfortunate resort to fictional inter-
pretation of latest events in Israel demands
clarification of a situation that could well poi-
son the minds of world leaders, especially the
American leadership. Resort to suspicions of
the Likud, personal attacks on its leader, Men-
ahem Begin, and the yielding to Arab pressur-
es may cause serious damage to the Israeli po-
sition in the United States. There is a serious
and urgent responsibility to set the record
straight and to define the Begin-Likud atti-
tudes, regardless of anyone's preferences for Is-
rael.
An important statement published in the
Christian Science Monitor demands serious con-
sideration. Prof. Uri Ra'anan of the Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy wrote about an
interview with Begin in the Israeli press in
which he stated his views and actually emerg-
ed as a spokesman for a party that is ready to
negotiate honorably with the Arabs.
Prof. Ra'anan's statement in the Christian
Science Monitor contains the following facts:
Eleven days before the elections, Begin
gave an interview to the Hebrew press.
At a cursory glance, this could be read as
one more reiteration of Israel's biblical
and, thus, historical and moral claim to
"Judea and Samaria" (or "The West
Bank") and a warning of the mortal dan-
ger which its control by inimical forces
would pose to the very centers of Israel's
population. However, on this, as on sub-
sequent occasions, in Hebrew as in Eng-
lish, he went to considerable trouble to re-
frain from stating that he would "annex"
this area or "extend Israeli jurisdiction. "
Actually, Mr. Begin confined himself to the
ambiguous term "control" concerning the
areas under dispute between Israel and Jor-
dan.
"We do not require that the Arabs accept
our views as a prior condition of our partici-
pation in serious peace negotiations and we
won't submit to demands that we accept
their views as a prior condition for their
participation in such negotiations."
This carefully phrased pronouncement im-
plies willingness to negotiate untrammeled
by any artificial prior fetters.
This impression is reinforced by his re-
sponse to the question whether Likud's
views on territorial matters would not pre-
vent a coalition with other elements that
subscribe to entirely different principles:
4i
• • • when the time comes, we shall nego-
tiate the government's basic platform and I
have reason to believe that we will find the
path to an agreed formulation."
Further reinforcement is provided by his
answer, when asked whether a Cabinet
headed by him would publish its peace
plan: "No. It will bring this plan, crystal-
lized and formulated, to the table of peace
negotiations. Only then will it be unveiled,
but not before then."
There is an obligation to avoid partisanship
and to judge the situation realistically and
truthfully. This is not a time to encourage ani-
mosities. The Begin view quoted here is of
great value for an understanding of the man
who is soon to lead the Israel government. Let
the truth be known and the American-Israel
friendship will be assured.
Dr. Jacob Tsur's Authoritative
Definition of Zionist Cause
Originally published in French under the title "L'Epopee du Sio-
nisme," an impressive paperback by Dr. Jacob Tsur has just been
made available by Transaction Books of Rutgers University defining
Zionism and tracing its historical background and accomplishments.
Dr. Tsur's "Zionism: The Saga of a National Liberation Move-
ment" is the product of one of the movement's outstanding advo-
cates and one of Israel's most distinguished leaders.
A former Israel ambassador to France, until last year president of
the Keren Kayemet 1'Yisrael, the world body of the Jewish Nation-
al Fund, Dr. Tsur is the author of several volumes dealing with the
Zionist cause and Jewish historical experiences. Most of his works
appeared in French and have been translated into English and other
languages.
In the current volume Dr. Tsur not only defines and interprets
Zionism but also offers a history of the events that led to the forma-
tion of the political movement by Theodor Herzl, the events that
preceded and followed the Holocaust, the tragedies suffered by
world Jewry and the state-building Israeli developments.
1 To have packed into this 100-page
book the complete story of Zionist en-
: deavor and to have chronicled all of the
events that have marked the liber-
ai tarian movement, with a record of Jew-
ish agonies and the challenges that are
inherent in state-making is a notable
achievement. Included are stories of
the first pioneers in Palestine, the
founding fathers of Zionism as well as
of Israel.
The fact that Dr. Tsur has taken into
account "The Attacks on Zionism and
Petro Anti-Semitism" emphasizes the
thoroughness with which he has dealt
with the totality of the issues relating
both to Zionism and to Israel's role in
the world.
DR. JACOB TSUR
Zionism and the libertarian ideal of
world Jewry is viewed as a turning point in history and on that score
Dr. Tsur declares: nation does not cease to exist unless it has willed
itself to die—and the will of the Jews to survive was stronger tha-
the so-called reality around them. Palestine was the answer to t:
impending threat.
"Israel as it now reflects in large measure the vicissitudes of that
vanished European Jewry and also its inexhaustible energy and pas-
sionate dedication. Other branches of the Jewish population also
threatened with extinction in their places of dispersion and absorbed
by the state in the course of its existence have contributed their
share to the melting pot of the nation, for example, the Jewries of
the Middle East and of the Islamic countries, who have never
crossed the Mediterranean, and the remnants of the flourishing com-
munities of medieval Iberia and heirs to their glorious tradition.
"The character of Israel is thus an amalgam of the characteristics
of its various ethnic components, yet also of its environment and the
conditions of its birth. All the obstacles it has had to surmount are
ineradicably engraved on the countenance of the new state.
Thus, the national movement that nurtured Israel into existence
will be immortalized in history as one of the most fructifying and
constructive impulses of modem political thought." -
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