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.