•
Chronological
Record of
Mass Murder of
Russian Jewish
Intellectuals
THE JEWISH NEWS
Commentary Page 2
VOL. LXXI, No 23
A Weekly Review
I Jewish Events
17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833
Zionism:
Culture and
Comfort
in Pre-War
Germany
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August 12, 1.977
U.S. Confidence in NY, Geneva Meetings
Begin Sees Omen in Vance Trip,
Rejects PLO Role
Begtn Stands Ftrm
JERUSALEM (JTA)—There was
no word or expression of an Ameri-
can pressure on Israel to accept
the PLO in the/Geneva talks, Pre-
mier Menahem Begin told news-
men Wednesday, at the end of the
first round of talks with Secretary
of State Cyrus- Vance.
Begin described the talks as "ex-
cellent, conducted in a most friend-
ly atmosphere," and ridiculed talk
of an Israeli-American con-
frontation. Just as such talk proved
false after the Washington visit,_
Begin argued, "also now `there is
no confrontation with the American
Secretary of State."
"Sometimes I suspect people are
standing with a stopwatch waiting
for a confrontation. "
But when pressed
to react to President
Carter's recent state-
ment regarding
PLO participation in
Geneva, Begin hin-
ted his dis-
satisfaction
by
merely saying that
Begin he would _ refrain
from making any criticism of the
American President. "Our stand to-
ward the PLO has not changed.
Under no circumstances will we
negotiate with the PLO."
Begin said the political momen-
tum in the Mideast was going on.
The next step in the talks will be
when the foreign ministers meet in
the U.S. in September, he said. He
said he was confident that the U.S.
would neither propose nor agree to
inserting changes in the UN Secu-
rity Council Resolution 242.
Begin was in a confident mood,
and he did not spare effort to cre-
ate the impression that the talks
were going smoothly.
Dayan.on the PLO
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Premier Menahem Begin Tuesday night praised visiting U.S.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance for . having s'ored "a great achievement in the 'cause of
peace" during his current Mideast mission—but he did not reveal what that "achievement"
was.
Begin, in a lengthy after-dinner speech at a state banquet in the Knesset, claimed that
things were "not as dark" as the press had painted them recently. But he went on to deliver
to Vance a grim lecture on the aims and methods of the PLO and to explain why Israel could
never accept the organization as a negotiating partner.
I The new U.S. statements—by President Carter in Plains, Ga. and by State Department
officials with Vance—that if the PLO accepted UN Resolution 242 it could be admitted to
Geneva, overhung the atmosphere during the talks between Vance and the Israeli
negotiators. But Israeli sources maintained that the secretary had not pressed Israel on/his
matter—perhaps because there had not been a positive response from authoritative PLO
leaders.
Questioned by reporters after his speech, Begin said he was not yet at liberty to disclose
what the "achievement" was, but termed it a breakthrough in the peacemaking process.
U.S. sources close to Vance said privately that they hoped the PLO issue would be
restored to "proper proportions" during the secretary's stay in Israel.
This prompted some observers to deduce that the American aim in making its new PLO
suggestion was in effect to put up a "two-way trial balloon." If the PLO responds favorably—
then the U.S. will indeed back its presence at Geneva, in defiance of the Israeli stand. If,
however, the PLO declines to moderate its position by accepting 242, then the U.S. and the
moderate Arab states would be freer to move towards Geneva without the Palestinian
organization.
All the Arab states which Vance visited have agreed, at any rate, to have their foreign
ministers attend further talks with the secretary in New York next month. This itself, in the
view of some Israeli sources, might have been the "achievement' to which Begin was
referring.
•
•
Begin said the PLO'S philosophy "is based on an Arabic Mein Kampf" and the
organization could therefore never be a negotiating partner "because such is its philoso-
phy."
He cited sections of the "Palestinian National Covenant" to prove the point, adding: "It is
a very serious matter to us,,our dear friend Mr. Secretary." He referred to the Holocaust in
which the Jewish people had been "tertiated" and declared that it was the duty of "the
man who bears responsibility for the future of his country to learn from the experiences of
the past."
(Continued on Page 5)
Religion 'Changed 5
for VanceEntourage
Anniversary of Stalinist Pogrom
4,000 Deaf
amentation Day: Fated Symbol Plant Trees
The Jewish people's sense of history has been perpetuated through the ages by the
in Israel
fixing of days of remembrance which not only commemorate actual events of catast-
By MOSHE DECI'OR
H."
rophe or redemption, but which become symbols of the condition and fate of the Jewish
people.
Such a day was Aug. 12, 1952. On that day, the 24 most eminent Soviet Jewish in-
tellectuals were summarily executed by Stalin's secret police, after being tried as
"enemies of the USSR, rebels, agents of American imperialism, bourgeois nationalist
Zionists." Like a flash of lightning, this one act reveals the whole truth of Soviet Jewish
life past and present and uncovers the depths of degredation into which the Jews have
been plunged by a regime that was and is a self-declared enemy of the Jewish people.
This act does not stand alone. It is part of the long process which began in Russia
with the Bolshevik Revolution and continues to this day. Lennin, though no anti-Semite,
misunderstood the Jews and did not see them as a legitimate people with its own charac-
ter, history and destiny, but as a group held together by persecution and superstition.
This denigration of the authenticity of the Jewish experience was the precursor of an
open war against the Jewish people and a denial of its right to exist.
First, the Hebrew language and literature and Zionism were banned and Judaism dev-
astated, drastically curtailing the continuity of Jewish cultural life. The network of Yidd-
ish cultural institutions permitted until the mid-1930's—schools, theatres, libraries, news-
papers,- journals, publishing houses, advanced research institutes—was controlled by
the Jewish Section of the party, though by 1930 that section was abolished—an ominous
portent.
(Continued on Page 20).
JERUSALEM (JTA )—The
"planter's prayer" was re-
cited with a difference at the
"Peace Forest" outside Je-
rusalem last week: it was re-
cited in sign language by two
translators for the benefit of
more than 4,000 participants
in the First World Confer-
ence of Jewish Deaf.
The participants all plan-
ted trees in the forest after
watching the prayer inter-
preted first into Hebrew sign
language and then into Eng-
lish sign language. They
were all guests of the Jewish
National Fund for the day
and visited development sites
in the Jerusalem area.
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel re-
mained adamant against including
the Palestine Liberation Organiza-
tion in Middle East peace negotia-
tions even if the PLO agreed to ac-
cept United Nations Security Coun-
cil Resolution 242. Foreign Min-
ister Moshe Dayan, at a press
conference after a meeting with
U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus
Vance, said "Even if the PLO does
accept all of Resolution 242, even
without reservations, it would not
mean we would accept the PLO as
a partner for Geneva negotiations.
"At the moment we are not being
asked to do that."
Dayan, who was
asked repeatedly
about the PLO's re-
ported change on
the UN resolution,
refused to give any
details of his meet-
ing with Vance. He
said he knew of no
American move to Dayan
get the PLO to change its attitude
on Resolution 24. If the United
States did propose bringing the
PLO to Geneva, "We would oppose
it," he said.
The foreign minister said he
could not envision any circum-
stance in which Israel would ac-
cept the PLO. "We see no reason
to negotiate with a party which is
not a state and especially with the
PLO which wants to destroy us,"
he said. Dayan reiterated Israel's
position that no additional parties
can be included in the Geneva Con-
ferene without the approval of all
the original parties. He said nego-
tiations are between states and gov-
ernments, not groups.
Dayan said that on the issues the
U.S. will not support Israel, the
Jewish state will go it alone.
F.
NEW YORK (JTA)—The American Jewish Com-
mittee called upon the Carter Administration "to
clarify" news reports from Saudi Arabia that Ameri-
can Jewish reporters accompanying Secretary of
State Cyrus Vance were presented on arrival to
Ssudi Arabia with. hotel. registration cards. with
"Christian" filled in as their religion.
Richard Maass, AJCommittee president, said: "If
this was simply a stupid oversight by an in-
experienced minor official perhaps it can be forgiven
with a reprimand. But if this is the policy of the De-
partment we demand an immediate apology and a
definite pledge that such a medieval ploy will never
be repeated." An official apology was made Monday.
According to news reports, some of the reporters
who arrived with Vance in Taif, the Saudi summer
capital, were Jewish.
An American official accompanying Vance was
asked why all the reporters were identified as Chris-
tians. He replied that immigration cards had to be
filled out in advance to speed registration.
A counselor with the American Embassy in Taif
said the cards were filled out in advance to save
time "with no thought at all to anyone's religion."