THE DETROIT JEWISH- NEWS
40 Friday, January 27, 1978
Disco_ parties by
• Dan
Sandberg
353-6699
Readers Forum
Leonard Fein's Criticism of Israel Lashed
subscriber to his excellent
journal, Moment, I have
been appalled more than
once by his "all is lost"
attitude which he couples
with criticism of Israeli pol-
icies as that which is lead-
ing Israel to disaster.
Speaking to the Detroit
Allied Jewish Campaign
Women's Division last week
(See Page 44), he had the
gall to suggest if the peace
talks had indeed broken
down, "the American Jew-
ish community will split
wide open if it is perceived
that the breakdown is due to
West Bank policy".
How dare he suggest that
half the American Jews will
refuse to support Israel if
Israel doesn't do what
American Jews think she
should ! He even legitimizes
this stance by suggesting
that this would be used as
"this year's excuse" and
says workers should not
give up but still raise money
to support Jewish schools in
Syria, Russian immigrants,
and so on.
Fein also said the Carter
Administration would now
lean heavily on Israel and
that Israel would expect us
to blunt this pressure which
a split Jewish community
could not do. Does he think
so many of us would not
want to dissuade the Ameri-
can government from pres-
suring Israel, that many of
us would agree that the
American government
should ressure Israel to do
Editor, The Jewish News:
Although I have the great-
est respect for Leonard
Fein as a person, and am a
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what might be against their
national interest?
I for one do not believe
that I know better than the
Israelis how they should act
to preserve their lives and
their country.
Prof. Fein implies that
Begin is intransigent; he
wrings our hearts telling us
how an Israeli mother did
not weep this year for the
first time in 15 years be-
cause her son was one year
nearer to military age, im-
plying that the Israelis will
do anything for peace —
then admits that even if
Begin wanted to give up the
West Bank, the Israeli
people would not let him as
they are absolutely com-
mitted to keeping it.
Fein properly stated that
we do not raise money to
subsidize any Israeli gov-
ernment's policies — yet
here he is in Detroit, ac-
tively campaigning against
an Israel government pol-
icy. Apparently as long as it
is negative and not positive
we can try to interfere with
Israeli government policies.
Fein, stated that if the
peace talks had indeed bro-
ken down, things would be
worse than before because
of the dashing of raised ex-
pectations on both sides.
Not for a moment did he
suggest it might be a tempo-
rary setback which surely is
to be expected, and which
even Cyrus Vance says
must be expected.
Vance also said that the
U.S. would not pressure Is-
rael, which I don't feel we
can completely trust — all
the more reason not to sug-
gest that half of the Ameri-
can Jews will do nothing if
the U.S. does try to pressure
Israel; all the more reason
to ask us, as Fein did not, to
stand together to protest if
the U.S. does lean heavily
on Israel.
Fein also joined the large
number of people now lost
in admiration for President
Sadat's "courage", ignoring
even Mr. Martin Qtrin's
moments-earlier quote of
Abba Eban: "Sadat did not
go to Jerusalem to make
things harder for Israel".
Eban was right; here is
Fein, a respected spokes-
man for American Jewry,
arousing anti-Israel feelings
among us, surely one more
thing that will make it hard
for Israel. I use the term
"anti-Israel" deliberately,
because Fein himself said it
was not only Begin who
would hold on to the West
Bank but the Israeli people
themselves.
I am not here advocating
that Israel should or should
not give up the occupied
lands; what I am advocat-
ing is that we stand together
and support Israel whatever
the Israelis decide is right
for themselves; and that, if
we disagree, we express our
disagreement to the Israelis
and not to the U.S. govern-
ment; and that, when we
express disagreements to
the Israelis we do so without
trying to blackmail them
into accepting our views by
threatening a split in the
American Jewish Commu-
nity which implies less fi-
nancial support for Israel if
they don't toe our line.
In closing, I might add
that last year when I heard
Fein speak in Springfield.
Mass., he was suggesting
that Israel had better uni-
laterally give up .the occu-
pied lands in order to per-
suade the Arabs to make
peace. Had Israel listened
then, Begin would have
nothing now with which to
negotiate.
Fein's continual criticism
of the present Israeli gov-
ernment, and his underlying
pessimism, makes him a
bad choice to launch a cam-
paign to raise money for
Israel. His appeal is so mov-
ing that we tend to attach
our emotional response to
his political statements
without questioning them as
we might question a less
skillful speaker.
In suggesting that "Israeli
intransigence" will be "this
year's excuse" for not giv-
ing, he implies that it might
be this year's excuse for not
working to raise the funds
Israel so-desperately needs.
Better to have someone less
eloquent, and less destruc-
tive.
Mrs. Dorothy Medalie
Emphasis on Balfour Declaration,
Self- Determination Called Wrong
Editor, The Jewish News:
You featured in your Dec.
30 editorial the text of let-
ters exchanged between
Faisal Ibn Hussein and Fe-
lix Frankfurter, relics of a
period when there was a
conciliatory Arab attitude
towards Zionism. "There is
room in Syria for us both,"
said Faisal, in his March 3,
1919 letter, apparently with
the idea that the whole of
Palestine could be Zionist,
leaving Syria, which also
included Lebanon, for
Arabs.
On March 3, 1919, there
was another event which
should be recalled now. In
the N.Y. Times of Jan. 6,
1978 James Reston recalls
"Woodrow Wilson's evan-
gelical campaign for the
`self-determination' of peo-
ples. From the time of the
Balfour Declaration to the
days of Pres. Truman, this
was the moral principle on
which the Jewish state was
founded."
Mr. Reston is wrong, and
as Premier Begin pointed
out, the "self-determina-
tion" principle is an argu-
ment playing into the hands
of the larger numerical
group, namely the Arabs.
The March 3, 1919 state-
ment of Woodrow Wilson,
reported that day in the
New York Times, based the
Zionist case, not on "self-
determination" but on a
claim superior to that. He
said he "was persuaded that
the Allied nations, with the
fullest concurrence of our
own (U.S.) government and
people, are agreed that in
Palestine shall be laid the
foundations of a Jewish
commonwealth."
At the same time, he men-
tioned "the historic claims
of the Jewish people in re-
gard to Palestine:" These
were embodied in the
League of Nations Palestine
Mandate (downgraded when
it is referred to as the "Brit-
ish Mandate") according to
which "the historical con-
nection of the Jewish people
with Palestine" provided
"grounds for reconstituting
their National home in that
country."
As reported in "Docu-
ments on British Foreign
Policy, 1919-1939," attention
was brought to Lord Curzon
on Nov. 10, 1920, that Pres.
Wilson considered that "Pa-
lestine should have rational
boundaries in the north and
the east (the Litany river,
the watershed of the Her-
mon and the Haulon and
Yaulon (sic) Valleys ...)"
This is only one example of
instructions by Pres. Wilson
not fully carried out after
his untimely illness.
Pres. Wilson's statement
of Marth 3, 1919 outstripped
the British promise in the
Balfour Declaration, yet to
this day even zealous sup-
porters of Israel's legal
rights persist in weakening
their basis by reminding us
only of the Balfour Declara-
tion.
Pres. Sadat, and now Mr.
Reston, use this device to
imply that there should also
be a "Balfour Declaration"
for the Arabs. Before the
Knesset, Mr. Begin did no
let Mr. Sadat get away with
it, but cited the League of
Nations' role as integral to
-
Israel's legal support.
But even he ignored the
initial U.S. role by Woodrow
Wilson.
The document to be cited
for the formal basis for the
U.S. support of Israel is the
Anglo-American Treaty of
Dec. 3, 1924, making the
U.S. a signatory to the Pa-
lestine Mandate, although
lot a League of Nations
nember.
Sidney Koretz
Falls Church, Va.