2 Friday, May 5, 1978
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
How and Who Can Help
Israel's Public Relations
Israel needs friends. If the public opinion polls are to
retain overwhelming American sentiment in support of
Israel, if Congress is to stay on Israel's side, it will be
necessary for the most knowledgeable in Jewish ranks, for
academicians, for those who are known for their leadership
in all fields of endeavor to speak out. They must write
letters to the newspapers and keep making contacts with
members of Congress. They must even advertise.
If rabbis, professors, industrialists won't let their voices
be heard, silence will contribute to a decline in favoritism
for Israel. One man who is not silent is S. Norman Course of
New York. He inserts appeals in Israel's behalf in the New
York press and he pays for the costly advertising space. He
writes impressive statements and is convincing. He refutes
attacks by Israel's enemies and calls for justice with cour-
age.
His most recent appeal in a paid ad in the N.Y. Times
appeared under the heading "Mideast Double Standards."
In recognition of his untiring labors this statement is re-
printed on this page with gratitude for his devotional ef-
forts.
Who will emulate Course? He is a one-man public rela-
tions force in Jewish ranks and he earns the gratitude of
every lover of liberty and justice.
Arab versus Jewish Children:
Who Are the Gun-Carriers?
Israel's military action in Lebanon gave the critics, many
of them very unfriendly, an opportunity to add to their
venom against the Jewish state. There were all sorts of
Lesson for All Libertarians: How S. Norman Gourse,
the One-Man Movement Who Champions Israel's Cause,
Sets a Major Example for All Defenders of Justice
infuriations about Israel murdering innocent children. The
truth of these assertions is yet to be proven. The Israeli
invasion in Lebanon was a military action and in a war
casualties are inevitable. But there was little, very little
proof of a massive action to attack a civilian population.
The truer facts were outlined in a statement to the N.Y.
Times by Joseph Neyer in refutation of the charges against
Israel. He wrote:
Yom Kippur War, the settlements and towns in
northern Israel have suffered 1,548 bombard-
army limited its advance to the few miles which
took it to the Litani River and avoided pursuit of
yet fmished), which was really an expression of
conflicting interests among the Arab states, there
In order to avoid civilian casualties, the Israeli
the PLO beyond.
It is well known that the PLO has a pattern of
establishing itself in the midst of civilian concen-
trations. The self-limitation of the Israeli army
announced in advance, was translated by the
PLO into a successful PLO defense. Abu Iyad,
PLO second in command, gloated, "Don't you
think we have introduced a new type of fighting in
the Middle East? You remember, the Israelis
reached Suez in six hours in 1967" (news story
April 2.) The simple point which Abu Iyad over-
looks is that the expanse of the Sinai Desert,
which had to be crossed by the Israeli army to
reach the Suez Canal in 1967, contained virtually
no inhibiting civilian population.
. . . the purpose of the invasion was to put an
end to the constant incursions and bombard-
ments that Israel has suffered in the years since
the PLO established its bases in southern Leba-
non. The massacre on the road from Haifa to Tel
Aviv on the part of the PLO terrorists was only the
last straw. In the four and a half years since the
Mideast Double Standards
Some pointers on hypocrisy in U.S. foreign policy . . .
The U.S. could hardly wait to engineer a UN resolution
demanding withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Curiously, the resolution mentions nothing about Syrian
troops occupying Lebanon or the PLO's use of Lebanese
bases for raids against Israel (terrorists have killed 1,131
people, wounded 2,471 — between 1967 and 1977). The
righteous in Washington limited their concern to "the ter-
ritorial integrity of Lebanon which remains a matter of
fundamental concern to the U.S."
Double Standard Number One . . .
In 1916, the U.S. did not pontificate so piously. When the
Mexican Government failed to curb Pancho Villa and
American citizens became victims of terrorist attacks,
President Wilson sent General Pershing with an expedi-
tionary force which remained in Mexico from mid-1916 to
early 1917. Secretary Lansing defended the action: "the
most effective method of preventing raids is to visit
punishment or destruction on the raiders, a plan the U.S.
desires to follow. If the Mexican Government is unwilling
or unable to provide protection, that does not relieve this
government from its duty to safeguard American citizens
by whatever steps necessary. The United States cannot
allow lawless men to plunder American territory, then seek
safety across the Rio Grande. The first duty Of any govern-
ment is the protection of life and property . .. it is unrea-
sonable to expect withdrawal when U.S. presence is the
only check upon further banditry."
President Carter has ordered the formation of a U.S.
commando unit to deal with terrorism against American
citizens abroad. President Kennedy warned Cuba we would
ignore her sovereign rights if Soviet missile bases were
established there, threatening American security. Why
does the territorial integrity of Lebanon but not of Israel
rate as a "matter of concern to the U.S."?
The Futility of UN Protection ...
Could a small UN force that is limited to "firing back"
really cope with the next round of PLO terrorism, aided by
the "rejectionists"? What if Israel is again compelled to
retaliate against shelling by long-range artillery provided
by the USSR? About use of American-made arms in Leba-
non, PLO got plenty from Saudi Arabia who gave it $48
million in 1976 alone.
Double Standard Number Two ...
Few powerful nations have surrendered territory taken
in war, even when there was no threat to security. The
Soviets possess enormous conquered lands; the U.S.
wrested much of our Southwest from Mexico and clings to
Panama and Okinawa. But Israel, desperately in need of
bits of land for security, is condemned under the pious
doctrine of the impermissibility of retention of lands con-
quered by force." This, despite wars forced upon her — and
lands which actually never belong to the agressor enemies.
By Philip
Slomovitz
Double Standard Number Three ...
Our worthies in the State Department persist in con-
demning Israeli settlements as "illegal". Eminent
authorities on international law dispute them. Who really
owns the land they are on? The Golan, Judea and Samaria
(the West Bank) and Gaza were all part of Biblical Israel.
Both the preamble to the League of Nations Mandate (con-
firmed by Article 80 of UN Charter) and the preamble to
the separate treaty our government signed with England in
1925 state the aim is to "reconstitute" the Jewish people in
their ancient homeland. To reconstitute means to make
whole. The British, in violation of the Mandate and the
Treaty, truncated the mandated territory and gave what is
now Jordan to the Arabs.
In 1948, in violation of the UN division plan, Jordan
captured the West Bank in their aggression against Israel.
If Israel's right to it is rejected because it was "conquered by
force," what makes Jordan's claim to it valid? A study of the
history of the Sinai will prove that Egypt's claim to owner-
ship is spurious.
Double Standard Number Four ...
Unjust and one-sided is the insistence on Israel's respon-
sibility to find a humane settlement for the Palestinian
refugees who left of their own free will and accord at the
urging of the Arab chieftains. Who speaks of the Arab
countries' responsibility to the Palestinians whose outcast
status they have fostered and whose misery they have
cultivated for strategic purposes? Equally indefensible is
the demand that Israel compensate the Arab refugees for
losses — with no corresponding recompense for Jews driven
from Arab countries but who have been resettled in Israel.
American policy is dictated by fear of offending the Arab
oil-producing states. The rapid opening of additional world
sources of oil renders us less vulnerable to Arab blackmail.
Much of what the Arab world obtains from the U.S. is not
obtainable elsewhere. Indeed, the Arabs have no other
place as strong and secure as America to invest, deposit, or
lend their billions. 35,000 American workers sustain
Saudi's structures. Justice and decency dictate that we
must support the only true democracy and our proven ally,
Israel.
Peace Yes
—
But Security First ...
Fair-minded Americans admire the courage of Israel —
its willingness to stand up against powerful voices willing
to risk Israel's security in the hope of appeasing petrodollar
interests. Israel faces both a hostile press and Administra-
tion spokesmen who are not above suggesting that Israel
change its democratically electically government. Israel
will not commit suicide by yielding to Sadat's terms and to
false promises of "guarantees". Our Middle East policy
should stress that Egypt, Jordan and Syria must negotiate
peace treaties that will include secure and recognized bor-
ders. Only then will there be peace and dignity for Arab and
Jew alike.
A public presentation by S. Norman Gourse, 515 E. 14th St., N.Y., N.Y. 10009
ments by artillery, Katyusha rocket launchers
and mortars. This letter would become too long if
it were to list all the atrocities from the Lebanon-
based PLO in the last few years — involving
schoolchildren, Christian pilgrims and hundreds
of innocents.
During the 1976-77 "civil war" in Lebanon (not
were 60,000 fatalities — more than twice the
number of fatalities on both sides in all the Arab-
Jewish conflicts of this century. The immensity of
this tragedy is insufficiently noted — probably
owing to the fact that Israel was not involved in it,
execept at the end, when Israel offered assistance
(mainly medical and economic) to the Christian
villages along its border.
Finally, the blame for the crisis is placed upon
Al Fatah, the core group of the PLO, which took
credit-for the March 11 bloodbath on the road to
Tel Aviv, not upon "the Palestinians." It appears
to serve the interests of certain PLO advocates,
even when they are professors, to confuse the two
terms.
Having raised the issue of children who suffer from the
war-charged atmosphere in the Middle East it is necessary
to examine one basic fact: as to who are the gun-carriers.
Louis Gelfand, a Detroit Technion leader, has preserved
a copy of the June 12, 1970 issue of Life Magazine. Its front
cover shows many children with guns. The photo caption is:
"The Tiger Cubs train at a camp in Jordan." The true tale of
how the elders treat the situation in that area of the world
is clearly depicted here: they arm children with guns.
Many stories from Lebanon in recent years revealed
similar truths: Children are carrying guns.
No one has ever seen anything of the sort in Israel. The
children are protected by their parents. They are the na-
tion's treasure. But they do not carry guns and it is to be
hoped that PLO brutalities will not compel the youth of
Israel to be gun-carriers like the children of those who seek
Israel's destruction.
Of course, there are young people who are serving in
Israel's army. But they are in the army and not in schools or
in villages. Jewish children carry their books, study the
sciences, hope for peace. They write poems advocating
peace and often address them to their Arab neighbors.
As long as children are being trained as gun-carriers,
which already implies that they either have learned or are
learning to shoot, what hope is there for peace? Will there
be a change in the Arab mind soon enough to make the
present aspirations for the end of the war a reality in the
lifetime of the present generation?
Begin 'Replacement' Furor
Leads to Radio Crackdown
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
The Broadcasting
Authority has cracked down
on the broadcast of news at-
tributed to unidentified
sources.
A directive ordered the
news staff to refrain from
airing anonymous news
items unless they have a
"significant public interest"
and then only with the ap-
proval of the director gen-
eral of the Broadcasting
Authority or the directors of
its radio or television
branches.
The directive is the result
of a radio report last month
which claimed that a senior
American personality had
suggested to a high level Is-
raeli personality that the
U.S. would like to see Pre-
mier Menahem Begin re-
placed by a more moderate
leader.
The report triggered a
storm of indignation in
Israel and was promptly
denied by Israeli and
American officials. It was
attributed to an anonym-
ous source. But Labor
MK Yossi Sarid charged
later that the Israeli per-
sonality was Foreign
Minister Moshe Dayan
and claimed Dayan had
leaked the report to a
radio correspondent
while he was in Washing-
ton accompanying Begin
lasf month.
Dayan angrily rejected
the allegation and asked
Attorney General Aharon
Barak to bring libel action
against Sarid. Barak re-
fused on grounds that it
would be against the public
interest.
As a result of the flood of
denials, Israel Radio was in
the position of having given
wide currency to an uncon-
firmed rumor. But Yitzhak
Livni, director general of
the Broadcast Authority,
defended the radio report at
the management committee
meeting.
He said it was based on
four independent sources
each of which confirmed its
authenticity.