THE JEWISH NEWS
lncorpora0M: The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of •July 20. 1951
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of Engl,h-Jewt , h New , gatx.r, Michigan
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Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
Po-aage Paid :it Southfield. Michigan :Ind Additional Marline Office
, Sub-eripfion $11 a year
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
ALAN HITSK Y. News Editor...HEIDI PRESS, Assistant News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 23rd day of Adar 11, 5738, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 9:1-11:47; Numbers 19:1-22. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 36:16-38.
Candle lighting, Friday. March 31, 6:38 p.m.
VOL LXXIII, No. 4
Page Four
Friday, March 31, 1978
Banning Hatred from Diplomacy
Israel and her leaders are being subjected to
such an avalanche of criticism that the need has
arisen for urgent study of developing conditions
affecting the Jewish state as well as the rela-
tionship of American Jewry and the govern-
ment and people of this land as reactions to the
crucial era affecting the Middle East and all the
interested parties.
Not only the settlements and Resolution 242,
and the Palestinians, but the military steps that
were taken to cordon off the danger spots out of
which have grown attacks on Israel which re-
sulted in tragedies inflicted upon innocent
people are among the problems at issue.
The drastic steps that were taken by Israel to
prevent more infiltrations into Israel that have
resulted in savagery must concern all fair-
minded and liberty-loving people. Many in the
communications media now are ultra-critical of
Israel. One organ, Time magazine, went so far
as to invoke an old canard, the indictment of
Israel, and indirectly the Jewish people, by
charging that while some Israelis have suffered
from the PLO terrorists the counteraction is in
itself mass murder. These are not the terms
used but are implied.
The very resort to the "eye for an eye" misap-
plication is evidence of a prejudice that is shock-
ing in its accusation.
Time magazine's resort to the "eye for an eye"
incitement to prejudice based its accusation on
the following statement: "Since the 1973 war
143 lives have been taken. Israeli retaliatory
strikes have killed some few thousand Arabs."
What are the facts? A letter from Arnold
Forster, general counsel of the Anti-
Defamation League of the Bnai Brith, gave a
thorough review of the tragic results of Arab
terrorism in a statement which the New York
Times featured under the editorials in the issue
of March 22. It was headlined "Letter on PLO
Terrorism: Israel Has to Act Because the World
Has Not." The Forster statement is important
because it indicts Arabs for their failure to re-
ject terrorism, thereby condoning the horrors.
Then he showed the extent of Jewish suffering.
This important statement should have reached
President Jimmy Carter before the crucial
meetings with Prime Minister Menahem Begin
because it reveals the horrors that were perpet-
rated against Israel, thereby forcing the milit-
ary action in Lebanon. Forster wrote:
In a plea addressed, it would seem, to a make-
believe world, your March 14 editorial "To
Break the Circle of Hate" urged nations to rec-
ognize their obligation to punish the terrorists
on every front, specifically urging Arab nations
to seize the moment to stand with Israel against
Palestinian terrorism.
The editorial was sensitive to Israel's feelings
and its needs. But the plea will have no impact on
reality. When in the United Nations has there
been a single word uttered by Arab spokesmen
about their kinsmen's bestial terrorism, except
to justify and explain it as a natural consequence
of Israeli political positions? When, over the past
10 years of PLO murders and other crimes, has
there been an Arab denunciation of terrorist
tactics — except for President Sadat's delayed
reaction in the recent case? When have firm
steps been taken by the international commun-
ity against them?
Had there been such repudiation and coun-
termeasures over the years, then today's Israeli
military action would never have had to take
place.
The reaction of the Arab world to the March 11
massacre of 37 Israelis belies the Times' hope
that the Arab attitude will suddenly change. On
the day of your editorial, your own news col-
umns reported that the Saudi radio had praised
the atrocity as a "courageous action," that the
Syrian press had hailed it as proper "retaliation,
that a Kuwaiti spokesman had termed it "only
natural," that, in the face of Lebanon's silence,
its former defense minister described it as "a
symbol of sound guerrilla action of which all are
proud."
Similarly, Iraq radio reported the killings as a
"day of revenge"; Damascus radio called it "a
daring operation" Libyan radio "a brave raid."
Let's not even bother to repeat the PLO filth that
poured forth justifying the deaths of the inno-
cent.
Let us recall what has happened during 10
years of international apathy. There have been
incidents on six continents in which the PLO and
its affiliates killed 1,131 people, injured 2,471 and
held 2,755 hostage. These terrorist actions in-
cluded 308 bombings in 20 countries; 216 attemp-
ted bombings in 26 countries; 180 shootings in 11
countries; 11 assassinations in nine countries; 17
attempted murders in 11 countries and 19
hijackings in 14 countries.
A decade's reality: seven terrorist actions in a
month; one incident every four days, day in and
day out for over 10 years; nine murders each
month; one victim every three days; 20 people
maimed each month; 22 human beings held
monthly as hostages.
Israel was the site of four of every five bomb-
ings, nine of every 10 shootings, three of every
four arsons and a majority of the assassinations;
over half — 1,776 — of the terrorist victims were
Israelis.
The world has done little or nothing to outlaw
the terrorism plague; they have only urged Is-
rael not to retaliate. And your plea to the Arabs,
made so many times before continues to be ig-
nored or brazenly rejected.
In the end, Israel has to act because the world
has not.
Will these facts by ignored? Will they fall on
blind eyes and deaf ears?
In the interest of peace — and both Israel and
Egypt contend that the hope for peace still re-
tains its realism — and for the sake of facts and
truth as elements of fair play in dealing with the
seriousness of the Middle East situation, it is
vital that prejudice be banned both from the
media and from diplomacy.
Voice of the People
Anything harmful to Israel will bring untold
misery for all of Jewry.
It is of the utmost urgency, therefore, that
Israel's friends be retained in her ranks and
that the American-Israel amity be kept firm
and unbreakable.
On all issues involving Israel, the voice of the
people must be heard, in the White House, in
the State Department, in Congress.
On issues affecting Israel's security, this
voice must be expressed firmly, emphasizing
the solidarity of Jewry and of all men of good
faith with Israel.
That voice must never be stifled.
Maurice Samuel's Classic
The Gentleman and the Jew'
Maurice Samuel was the eminent interpreter of Jewish attitudes
towards the non-Jews as much as he had commented on internal
Jewish experiences.
In "The Gentleman and the Jew," first published by Knopf in 1950,
now available as a paperback from Behrman House, the late Mr.
Samuel confronted his non-Jewish neighbor with the problems which
related to antagonisms and invited understanding and mutual ac-
cords.
In a sense, this volume was a personal document, a confessional
relating to experiences which often involved friction. In the main, it is
to this day a constructive call for mutual accord. As the subtitle to the
book asserts, "The Gentleman and the Jew" emphasizes "25 centuries
of conflict in manners and morals."
Russian Photographic Album
Includes Jewish Landmarks
For a complete knowledge of the Russia with which the world deals
today in the East-West conflict, the record of the Czars, the Imperial
family that introduced the Jewish Pale of Settlement and encouraged
the discriminations that lasted for decades must be equally known.
A knowledge of the Russia that preceded, in fact introduced, be-
cause the collection also includes the first two years of the Communist
regime, is provided in a remarkable collection of photographs entitled
"Russia." Marvin Lyons gathered these original photographs of the
years 1880-1920 and edited the book.
He took into account the fate of Jews in Russia and referred to them
in an introduction in which he stated:
"The Russian Empire was a complex society. There were great
iniquities and inequalities to be certain but men were actively trying
to overcome them— legally and not through the bullet or the bomb.
Slowly but surely the changes that men desired were taking place,
restrictions were being removed, rights were being legislated into
law. Certainly there was abject poverty, certainly the Jews were
harassed, the Poles deprived of their language, the Finns of their
army, but just as certainly Russia's fellows in the community of
nations were at one time or another guilty of same or similar sins.
"This is not a brief in favor of the Imperial Russian State. It is a
partial and very inadequate pictorial chronicle of a country that for a
long time has exerted a great influence on the world, has exported
literature and music and great men. It is a nation that has an emo-
tional and intellectual hold on those born there (and many of those
who lived there only for a time) unlike any other country. Even after
60 years of exile, the post-revolutionary Russian emigres still feel
they have only one home. Would that I could make it possible for them
to return to that home. Perhaps this book will soothe a little of that
yearning." -
Included in this interesting collection, published by Charles Scrib-
ners Sons, are essays defining the pressures under which the Rus-
sians lived. In the photographs are included these with special inter-
est to Jews:
"Jewish families in Ekatorinoslav, in 1910, within the Jewish Pale
of Settlement, where all Jews were, in theory, forced to live." There
are two pictures under this designation.
"Bokhara Jews, 1890."
"A Jewish soldier of the 20th Sapper Battalion, 1918."