56

Friday, October 7, 1977

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

60th Anniversary of Balfour Declaration Serves
as a Reminder of Britain's Former Pro-Zionism

By MAURICE SAMUELSON

No leading British politi-

LONDON (JTA)—Middle cian, let alone a political
East watchers are awaiting party, has yet said, "hear,
with growing interest the hear" to Begin's description
forthcoming 60th anniver- of the West Bank as "liber-
sary of the Balfour Declara- ated" portions of the land of
tion, whereby Britain recog- Israel. Even pro-Israeli
nized Jewry as a national , newspapers routinely refer
entity and later assumed not to Judea and Samaria,
the mandate for the Jewish and not even to "adminis-
national home.
tered" territores, but to
'their interest is sharp- "occupied territories, or to
ened by the news that Pre-
"Jordon's West Bank."
mier Menahem Begin • of
A sober paper like The
Israel may be in Britain on Financial Times accepts
the anniversary of the dec-
almost unquestioningly that
laration which was issued the core of the conflict is not
Nov. 2, 1917. The British Arab hostility to Israel but
Zionist Federation, recipi- the thwarted drive for a
ent of the historic docu- new Arab state under the
ment, is hoping that the leadership of the Palestine
Israeli premier will be the Liberation Organization.
star speaker at its gala din-
ner in a London hotel..
The Israeli government
This year; however, the cannot draw very much
anniversary will not be a comfort either from the
straightforward festive 450,000-strong Jewish com-
occasion or an opportunity munity. Staunch in its gen-
for hypothetical reflections.
ral solidarity with Israel
If 1917 saw the high water over security, Anglo-Jewry
mark of British involvement also applauds Israel's taboo
with Zionism, 1977 is distin- on the PLO. But it has not
guished by Britain's lack of yet been infected by Begin's
understanding for Israel's feelings. about Judea and
approach to a settlement Samaria.
with the Arabs. This atti-
True, there is a vociferous
tude cannot be explained in
group of -Herut followers
terms of Begin's reputation
as the leader of an armed who support him to the hilt.
But their smallness merely
revolt against Britain; since
highlights the community's
it pre-dates his election.

(Copyright 377, JTA, Inc.)

The Israel Bond Organiza-
tion is doing something
unusual—giving special
honor to a business organi-
zation—tendering a national
dinner in Washington to
Coca Cola and its head, J.
Paul Austin. Abba Eban is
to be one of the speakers.
They will play Hatikva and
Dixie together.
What is the occasion?
Coca Cola has not surren-
dered to the Arab boycott of
Israel, so the Arabs have
boycotted it. The only place
in the Middle East where
you can get a coke is in
Israel.
Despite the Arab bdycott,
the Coca Cola business
seems to be getting along.
Some American business-
men fear, or say they fear,
the Arab boycott. Seems to
me this is nonsense. The
Arabs want American dol-
lars as much as Americans
may want Arab oil. And
America, if it wants to, can
do a little boycotting of its
own. They can refuse for
instance to sell the Arabs
arms or train the Saudi Ara-
bian soldiers.

Americans are even
needed technologically to
help the Arabs get their oil

_

LORD BALFOUR

general lack of full identi-
fication with Israel's cur-
rent mood and policies.

The Zionist Federation, to
which Herut belongs has not
engaged seriously in politi-
cal pamphleteering since
the British Mandate ended.
Now, divided sharply
between extreme supporters
and critics of the Begin
regime, it tries to concen-
trate all the more studiously
on uncontroversial tasks
like day school education
and defensive public
relations.

To whom, then, will Begin
be able to turn in Britain in
his advocacy of an undi-
vided Eretz Yisrael? on the
occasion of the Balfour
anniversary the answer is
out of the ground. Israel has
clear: to the dead states-
a good technical school,
men and politicians who
Technion, but the Arab
brought the declaration into
lands have none.
being 60 years ago.
Perhaps the Arab threats
Even - a cursory glance
may do some god& It will
through contemporary
cause the Western nations
records shows that, in their
to - develop other energy
soaring enthusiasm for a
resources, as we shall have
Jewish national revival,
to do in 25 years or so any-
way. If we could develop
these men had a vision not
solar energy, we wouldn't
of a modest Jewish home in
be polluting our streets with
a corner. of a truncated
all the poisonous fumes of
Palestine but of a Jewish
gasoline.
Palestine undivided and
Maybe, who knows, scien- undiminished. Here are
tists may find a way of turn-
some of their statements
ing Coca Cola into an
energy to run our cars and both at the time of, the dec-
laration and years later
heat our homes. If it gives
when facing the problems of
people energy, why can't it
Arab hostility:
do it for machines? The
David Lloyd George.
machines would probably
Prime Minister in 1917, told
like its taste better than
gasoline. Dr. Chaim Weiz-
the Royal Commission in
mann was working on ' 1937 that "it was con-
extracting oil from plants.
templated that when the
There is an old story that
time arrived for according
the inventor of Coca Cola
representative institutions
was a Jew. The story goes
to Palestine, if the Jews had
that he wanted a glass of meanwhile responded to the
milk, but was "fleishig," so
opportunity...and had
he couldn't drink any. So he
become a definite majority
invented the drink and
of the inhabitants, then
named it cola after She-Ha-
Palestine would thus
Kol, the prayer which• is
become a Jewish
recited ' by Jews before
drinking any liquid. The
commonwealth."
story, however, is false.
Foreign Secretary Arthur

A Salute to Coca Cola

By DAVID SCHWARTZ

Balfour agreed when, in
June 1919, Justice Louis
Brandeis of the United
States declared to him in an
interview that "Palestine
should be a Jewish home-
land" and that the future
Jewish Palestine must have
control of the land and - its
natural resources."

Eric Forbes Adama, one
of the British experts
charged with drafting the
League of Nations' Mandate
for Palestine, wrote that the
British government had
accepted `"an attempt to
make Palestine a state in its
natural geographical and
historic frontiers and by
gradual immigration and
special economic facilities
to turn this state into a Jew-
ish state. In a Foreign
Office memorandum, he
spoke simply of "the recon-
struction of a Jewish
Palestine."
A recurring theme of Brit-
ish statesmen was that
Judea should be for the
Jews as Arabia should be
for the Arabs and Armenia
for the Armenians. The
expression was used by
Lord Robert Cecil, Balfour's
deputy at the Foreign
Office, at the giant demon-
stration in the London
Opera House hailing the
Balfour Declaration one
month after it was issued.

This integral vision of a
Jewish-ruled Palestine per-
sisted in the years immedi-
ately after the declaration
while Britain was still ang-
ling for the Palestine Man-
date against the rival
claims of France and
others.

, Herbert Samuel, shortly
to become Palestine's first
High Commissioner, out-
lined Britain's policy, on the
Balfour Declaration's sec-
ond anniversary, as the pro-
motion of Jewish immigra-
tion, rural settlement,
cultural development and
self-government "in order
that with the minimum of
delay the country may
become a purely self-gov-
erning commonwealth
under the auspices of an
established Jewish
majority."

Winston Churchill, Colo-
nial Secretary at the
inception of the Mandate,
envisaged "in our own life-
time by the banks of the
Jordan a- Jewish
state...which might com-
prise three million or four
million Jews." (Article in
the Illustrated Sunday Her-
ald, Feb. 8, 1920.)
Balfour himself was no
less emphatic about the sig-
nificance of the declaration
for being alert to the
obstacles 'awaiting it.
Addressing an Albert Hall
rally on July 12, 1920, he
reminded the Arabs that it
was Britain which had pro-

moted an autonomous Arab
state in Mesopotamia and
urged them "not to grudge
that small notch" of Pales-
tine "to the people who for
all these hundreds of years
have been separated from it
but surely have a title to
develop along their own
lines in the land of their
forefathers."

To his colleagues at the
Foreign Office, Balfour was
even blunter than that. In
his confidential memo-
randum dated Aug. 11, 1919,
be wrote that Zionism" is
rooted in age-long tradi-
tions, in present needs, in
future hopes, of far pro-
founder import than the
desires and prejudices of
the 700,000 Arabs who now
inhabit that ancient land."
Of course, these pro-Zion-

ist politicians were soon to
reduce their pristine vision
of a Jewish homeland in
reponse to Arab demands
for immediate majority
rule. Transjordan was
detached from the- provi-
sions of the Jewish national
home, even though Britain
' earlier employed Zionist
arguments to control it.
Nevertheless, there was a
feeling that this should be
the final concession. T.E.
Lawrence wrote in 1929 that
the establishment of the
Hashemite Kingdom of
Transjordan "honorably ful-
fills the whole of the prom-
ises we made to the Arabs

in so far as the British
spheres are concerned" Let-
ter to Prof. William Yale).
Lawrence's words are
worth recalling today as
Israel is pressed to redivide
the country west of the Jor-
don River, and to enact the
UN partition which she her-
self accepted in 1974 but the
Arabs rejected. Equally top-
ical are the sober reflec-
tions of Chaim Weir in
about that earlier
which he, Vladimir Jabo-
tinsky and other Zionists
had acceptance only for
fear lest Britain would oth-
erwise Spurn the Mandate.

The' 1922 White Paper,
removing Transjordon from
the Jewish national home,
"was clearly dictated by a
desire to placate the Arabs
as far as possible, "Weiz-
mann wrote in his book,
`Trial and Error."
He added: "It was as

little realized in 1922 as it is
today that the real oppo-
nents of Zionism can never
be placated by an diplo-
matic formula— their objec-
tion to the Jews is that the
Jews exist, and in this ease
they desire to exist in
Palestine.
Begin will be excused if
he tells his British friends
that the words of Weiz-
mann, the friend of Balfour.
are no less meaningful in
1977 than in the year they
were written.

Haifa University Psychologists
Study Sex and the Retarded

By MOSHE RON

The Jewish News
Special Israel Correspondent

TEL AVIV—The Univer-
sity of Haifa has established
an institute for exploring
harmonious family life and
sexual satisfaction. Students
of the university' and
inhabitants of the village of
Kfar Tikva have recorded
stories and important epi-
sodes about their own sex-
ual relations. Most of the
inhabitants of the village
are mentally retarded and
therefore it was interesting
to compare the accounts of
sexual activity by normal
students as opposed to the
mentally retarded.
Sexual education is still in
its initial phase in Israel.
Moreover, the problem is
not dealt with at all in
schools or institutions for
mentally retarded children.
Therefore the laboratory
project of Haifa University
could be regarded as a pio-
neering effort. According to
the director of the project,
psychologist Ofra Ayalon,
the mentally retarded
develop strong sexual feel-
ings as normal people do.
But their prospects of devel-
oping stable sexual relation-
ships and establishing fami-
lies are limited. Marriages
of these people are not
encouraged.
Ofra Aylon chose the vil-
lage of Kfar Tikva for her
experiments. as it is close to
the University of Haifa and

,

there are more than 150
youngsters there over' the
age of 16. In the village a
system of community devel-
opment is tried, whereby
the inhabitants are granted
a maximum of autonomy,
and the influence of the
"establishment" is reduced
to a minimum. Boys and
girls live separately. The
atmosphere is that of pri-
vate homes. The village
inhabitants work at jobs,
and they have de-veloped a
sense of sharing in the work
— an attitude necessary for
the operation of the village.
Whoever is mentally or
physically capable of learn-
ing attends classes in the
afternoon.

In the laboratory tests 20
students and inhabita of
the village took
- and girls in the first
et-
ings. Personal questions
were asked in order to fos-
ter mutual communication
and relations. Then the
questions of personal prob-,
lems were examined.

In the third phase the
group divided into small
units of four or five persons.
Each unit behaved like a
little family. Each partici-
pant played a certain part:
a father of a daughter who
had gone astray, a mother
of a son who uses drugs,
etc. Thus, each unit created
a problem leading to family
disunity and then sought a
solution.