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2 Friday, December 2, 1977
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
After the Historic Summit: Shaky Peace Assumes Some
Stability...Will the Palestinian Problem Become Less
Aggravating?...Endorsement for WZCongress Slate 3
By Philip
SiOMOVitZ
Election to World Zionist Congress and Urgency of Leon Dulzin's Selection to Its Chairmanship
When the ballots arrive from the American Arbitration Association, eligible voters for
representatives to the World Zionist Congress, which is to convene in Jerusalem on Feb.
18, will be faced with a duty to name representatives who will be charged with the obliga-
tion of selecting the ablest people for leadership in a time of great urgency for Israel and
for Jews everywhere.
The WZCongress decisions will have great significance for the government of Israel. It
will be of great importance for the Zionist movement which retains a strong link with the
defenders of Israel and the supporters of the major causes related to the government.
Vital to the issues will be the naming of the president of the World Zionist Organization
and the head of the Jewish Agency..
This column is on record as having admired the work of Leon Dulzin, who has served as
acting chairman of the Jewish Agency and presently as its treasurer. His ability and
integrity are unquestioned. He is respected in the Diaspora as well as in Israel.
Much can be said and written about the many differences that affect party loyalties.
The candidacy of Mr. Dulzin for world Zionist leadership must be treated above party
The Hanuka Theme and the Lessons
Derived from the Knesset Summit
What a glorious Hanuka this can be for Israel and for
world Jewry! The mere thought of a possible freedom
unhampered should be enough to inspire faith in better days
to come, in an understanding that will make neighbors
rejoice together with a feeling of confidence that weapons
will be less needful when there is a desire to live in har-
mony and to enjoy the fruits of commonality in needs and
aspirations.
Former antagonists still are not fully at ease. But they
have begun to relax.
Beating swords into plowshares may not be completely
realized, ever, yet even in its minuteness, as in the hand-
clasp of Anwar Sadat and Menahem Begin, it augurs joy for
Hanuka.
May this be the new glory for the Hanuka to be observed
next week. The Maccabean lesson can not be abandoned,
but neither can the prophecy of Isaiah be erased from the
hearts and minds of all who aspire to peace and tranquility
among neighbors.
Never-to-be-Forgotten
Kissinger Groundwork
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger's share in the building of a hoped
for Middle East peace will not be erased from history nor
can it ever be forgotten.
He was judged suspciously when he and Anwar Sadat kis-
sed. Now a kiss on Golda Meir's cheek by Sadat, of all
places in Jerusalem, is hailed as a messianic occurrence.
Shuttle diplomacy introduced face-to-face negotiations.
What Kissinger did in achieving an end to the Six-Day War
was introductory to later developments involving the Egyp-
tian president.
Few diplomats have been treated with as much abuse as
Kissinger. To have suspected his compassion for fellow
Jews was an injustice. He acted as the realist, and his prag-
matism became a step-by-step diplomatic achievement.
The summit in Jerusalem in November, 1977 cannot be sep-
arated from the preparatory Kissinger steps of 1973-1976.
Will the PLO Ever Gain
Credibility With Israel?
All the euphoria that has accumulated with the expe-
rience gained from the Anwar Sadat visit to Jerusalem will
not dispel the suspicions and doubts that have marred
human relations in the Middle East in the decades that pre-
ceded and followed Israel's statehood.
Many predictions were resorted to in the media after the
historic Sadat-Begin deliberations. One was to the effect
that Menahem Begin had consented to the PLO being repre-
sented at the planned Geneva Conference and that the
ranks of Israel's bitterest enemies were to have a voice at
those sessions as delegates attached to representations
from various Arab countries.
This could be harmless. Nevertheless it raises a painful
question for Israel and her friends. Does it mean that in the
course of time Israel will be seated with her most threat-
ening adversaries?
It is asked, with a measure of logic : if Sadat, who had
advocated Israel's demise, who was a pro-Nazi in World
War II, who constantly collaborated with the PLO and Ya -
sir Arafat, can shake hands with Moshe Dayan and Golda
Meir and Menahem Begin and Abba Eban, why can't the
PLO also be accepted as an ally in moves for peace in the
Middle East?
There are, indeed, those who say it is possible. There are
those who advocate it.
An article in the Jerusalem Post, Nov. 1, by Meir Mer-
hav, was considered so vital that it was immediately
reprinted on the NY Times Op-Ed Page, Nov. 7. Entitled
"The Unavoidable Topic," the article was subtitled in the
Jerusalem Post as "Israel will have to reconsider its deep-
politics and as a necessity in all future planning for Zionist efforts, for philanthropy
affecting Israel and all the cultural and economic tasks that are important for Israel and
her supporters.
This is not a political column. Every faction in the Zionist movement has a role of value
to Israel and to world Jewry. But leadership is a matter that requires serious consid-
eration. Therefore, with the presidency of the World Zionist Movement at stake, this
writer feels an obligation to take a firm stand in the matter involving the choice of the top
leader in Jewish ranks. .Leon Dulzin is, in this writer's view, unmatched as a candidate
for such leadership. Mr. Dulzin lends dignity as a successor to Nahum Goldmann and
Aryeh Louis Pincus.
The Zionist Organization of America, represented as Slate 3 on the ballot for the World
Zionist Congress, is the strongest backer of Mr.‘Dulzin. There is reason to believe that an-
overwhelming vote of Israeli delegates to the WZCongress will be for Dulzin. He has
strong European support. He needs the backing of American Jewry and should receive it.
This columnist's vote on Dec. 8 will be for Slate 3.
seated resistance to a 'Palestinian entity' idea which will
arise at Geneva." The Israeli writer concluded his article
by stating:
The truth is that Israel, for Its own sake, has no busi-
ness interfering in the self-detemination of the Palesti-
nians, in deciding whether they shall live in a Palesti-
nian state, a Jordanian-Palestinian federation, a
unified Jordanian kingdom or republic, or anything
else. The more we try to interfere, the worse it may be
for us, in the long run. And in the long run we shall in
any case not be able to impose our will short of armed
intervention.
Israel's business is to insure the durability of such
peace as it may perhaps be able to attain. The first
condition for that is to give up any attempt at annexa-
tion, under whatever name. It must make sure that the
terms of such a peace, if it is within reach, are
accepted by its adversaries as voluntarily as by itself,
without coercion beyond the mutual one inherent in any
process of negotiation.
It must, and has the right to, insist, in that frame-
work, on guarantees for its security. These may be ter-
ritorial--temporary or permanent—to an extent which
itself is a function of the willingness with which that
peace is accepted by the other side, and of what sort of
relations it will include.
Such safeguards may comprise explicit or implicit
understandings of what deed or event would be
regarded as a casus belli. Israel's security may even
be founded on nonconventional arrangements, neither
territorial nor conventionally military, such as recipro-
cal warning systems and supervisory forces.
Above all, Israel must recognize that a PLO and a
(possible) Palestinian state willing to make peace and
accept the security arrangements vital for us will by
that very readiness be transformed into something
other than what they are (or are envisaged) now.
There is little chance in the near future that peace
will be recognized for what it is—a process rather than
a state, a network of mutual relations the intensity of
which is in inverse proportion to the needs of defense
and mutual fear. The blindness is on both sides. Quite
possibly, there will be a stalemate, perhaps even
another war, before reason can prevail. Worst of all,
there is the omnious prospect of an imposed settlement
which, because enforced, will be no solution for
anyone.
The arguments for such an approach are multiple.
Haven't enemies in both world wars become friends?
Hasn't even the vilest atrocity been forgotten when wars
ended and antagonists met at a peace session?
The PLO still speaks in terms of Israel's destruction. The
Sadat-Begin accord didn't influence a pro-PLO attorney in
Dearborn who is so blinded by hatred that he would not
accord Israel the right to live. Will the hatred vanish? Will
Sadat have given a new spirit to the bigoted in his ranks?
Then, will it be followed by handshakes even with Arafat?
It is unbelievable, yet it has its advocates. There are no
substitutes for what will be taught by time.
Sadat as a Symbol
of Global Controversy
Wiseacres will be speculating, predicting, debating and
differing over the value of the Anwar Sadat visit in
Jerusalem.
No matter what the results or how soon they materialize,
the fact remains that Sadat was in Jewish Jerusalem, that
he befriended Menahem Begin and Begin befriended him;
that he visited Yad Vashem and covered his head with a
yarmulka; that he made demands and was confronted
head-on by Begin.
David Ben-Gurion often made predictions. One of them
was—and that was during the most critical times for Israel
during the most vicious attacks upon her by her enemies—
that when an Arab visits -Israel it will be the beginning of an
approaching peace. This is a prophecy that may have come
true last week.
It all happened so unexpectedly. And it came at a time
when Israel was governed by a great leader, by a man of
vision and religiosity. The occasion needed a man of faith.
The hour of need was glorified by a Jew who is a scholar cl
and fearless.
Begin met the issues courageously. He was confronted by
a man of great courage. It took real bravery to come to
Jerusalem and to speak peace with the people who have
been marked for death by his fellow Arabs. And his oppo-
site, Israel's Prime Minister Menahem Begin, spoke his
mind as freely as if he were arguing with an opponent of his
own faith in the Knesset.
When Begin assumed power in Israel he was called many
names. He was abused. He was called a terrorist. He was
the object of many insults. Those who had vented their poi-
son at him can eat their words. Begin rose high in the
hearts and minds of his people and he must have left a deep
impression on President Sadat.
It was a glorious weekend and the Jewish historians will
Joe writing a new chapter that will be marked by a recogni-
tion of the dignity with which a people literally at war
transformed itself into a hospitable folk proclaiming a
desire for peace and a determination that it shall come to
fruition.
!
Menahem Begin and Anwar Sadat
as Nobel Prize Candidates
Anwar Sadat and Menahem Begin have already been
nominated by two German legislators for the 1978 Nobel
Peace Prize.
From the moment the' two statesmen met in the Knesset
for addresses to their nations and to the world, there were
recommendations for consideration of the two men for the
coveted prize.
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger had already received the prize for
his efforts in the Middle East. For his peace tasks on the
Island of Rhodes in 1948, when an armistice was agreed
upon between Israel and Egypt, Dr. Ralph Bunche was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
For Begin and Sadat to share in such honors would be
continuity in international hopes for an end to hostilities
between Israel and her neighbors. It could end totally any
further attempts to destroy Israel or ever to hear war talks
again in that area which has until now been called "The
Battleground of the World."
Dewey Stone, the Remarkable
Leader Who Was an Inspiration
to Movements and Fellow Men
The passing of Dewey Stone was not unexpected. He had
been ill for several years. This commentator can not forget
his agonies when he had last met with him at a meeting of
the board of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York.
He was not well, but he came to an important meeting +o
make his contributions towards the advancement of
important Jewish news agency.
,
Dewey Stone had a role of great importance in many
movements. He was a dominant figure in the ranks of the
aVeziammnn Institute of Science, and was appropriately
honored for it. He did more to aid Israel, especially in pre-
statehood years when weapons of defense were vital to the
state's existence, than any other man in this country.
He was a friend of Presidents and he was among the most
active in support of Hubert H. Humphrey.
He had so many achievements to his credit that it is
impossible to list them all.
This is merely to pay tribute to him as a friend and co-
worker. About him it should truly be said zekher tzadik liv-
rakha—may the memory of a saintly man be bless pd