2 Friday, May 25, 1918
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
The Threatened 'Watershed':
Emerging Menace for Israel
U.S. Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska, who voted in favor
of the package jet sale to the Arab countries and Israel, as
proposed by President Jimmy Carter, expressed the view
that "this will be a watershed year for Jewish influence in
the country."
This was one of the lessons derived from the crucial vote,
May 15, in the U.S. Senate, on a measure whose adoption
continues to add anxiety to the already menacing situation
in the Middle East.
For those who place much faith in a continuing
American-Israel friendship, the anticipated "watershed"
could be calamitous. That it should be viewed with such
sincerity is a matter to be welcomed. If the increasing
influence of the oil interests is to continue as a menace to
the Jewish state and as a challenge to American Jewry, it is
certain to call for an equally mounting obligation for vigi-
lance to be translated into action.
It was a different story two years ago, when Presidential
Candidate Jimmy Carter ceaselessly made promises not to
obstruct Israel's road to security. Here are some of the
answers that were given by Candidate Jimmy Carter be-
fore the November 1976 election:
Q. Do you favor maintaining American assis-
tance to Israel at least in its present level?
A. We should continue to supply, in the full
amount necessary, economic and military aid so
that Israel can maintain its security and integrity
as a Jewish state and so that it can pursue peace
from a position of strength and power. I believe
that this aid should not be used in carrot and stick
fashion. Israel must feel secure in the support that
it expects from America in order to take the
necessary risks for peace. There must be no more
"reassessments" or withholding of aid from our
country in order to pressure Israel into making
political concessions to the Arab states.
Q. What is your position on supplying arms to
Arab countries by the U.S.?
A. I am not in favor of the sale of any weapons
that could be used in an attack on Israel. I agreed
with the Congressional committee which opposed
the sale of the air-to-ground offensive missiles to
Saudi Arabia last month, on the ground that the
sale of those missiles would not improve the
chances for peace in the region or increase
security and stability in the Middle East. There
was no reason to think they would be used only
for defense. There were, however, reasons to fear
that they would increase the chance of conflict.
No administration which was sensitive to the cli-
mate in the Middle East would have let the sale go
forward.
I strongly oppose the new American role of
arms merchant to the world, and especially to the
Arab states. As regards Egypt, I would not favor
any sale of military supplies until after Egypt has
worked out a permanent settlement recognizing
Israel and its right to exist in the Middle East as a
peaceful nation.
How could such pledges possibly be forgotten or ignored?
Yet, there must be an acceptance of the inevitable. A new
ball game is in progress. The press, playing coy, juggling
with national security loyalties, actually is supporting the
fear lest the oil-rich countries add to the energy hazards. To
protect their views, the press and the politicians warn of an
Israel "hard line," inviting the assumption that Sadat's is a
soft approach.
It is no wonder that it is now said freely that President
Carter, who was the active lobbyist in support of his arm-
the-Arabs jet sales plan is also the most powerful lobbyist
for Egypt's President Anwar el-Sadat. It is this that must
be feared, and the yielding to the Sadat and PLO prop-
aganda that must concern every fair-minded American.
Why Can't Anti-Semites
Be Right About Jewish Power?
Remember the old story about the Jew in Hitler's time
who was reading and enjoying Streicher's vile Stuermer?
He explained that Streicher portrayed the Jews as control-
ling the press, running governments, having all the money.
"I like that," he said. "It's better than the Judische
Rundshau which reported on persecutions and Jews being
beaten and driven to concentration camps."
The report a few days ago about the wealthiest people in
America would have caused chagrin for that Berlin Jew.
He would have learned that not a single Jew is among the
billionaires in this country.
Yet the anti-Semites keep saying, "Jews have all the
money, they control the press, they dominate everything."
Why can't anti-Semites be right on some of their accusa-
tions?
Communications Media Continuing Their Pressures
With 'Hard Line' Accusations . . . Failing to Look at
the PLO Covenant and Its Aim to Destroy-Israel
The Supporters of the PLO
and the Covenant for Murder
In the midst of the debate over the merits and demerits of
the packaged jet sale, the PLO inserted ads in major Ameri-
can newspapers inviting American support. A local news-
paper ad carried the names of three members of the Detroit
City Council. It included a list of Jewish academics. It is
this that demands action to show how the misled into a pact
with the PLO actually are advocating more Genocides,
another campaign for mass murder of innocent people.
Therefore, it becomes obligatory upon all decent people to
join in exposing the new campaign against Israel and the
Jews and to renew the warning of what PLO anticipates as
the ultimate of its program. Let it be indicated again that
PLO stands for mass murder and for the annihilation of the
Jewish state, as the following portions of its Covenant
indicate:
By Philip
Slomovitz
They don't. They merely echo what all Jews and all Israelis
(Communists excluded?) crave for: PEACE. But on the
main issues there is no disunity in Jewish ranks. There is
the right to differ but not to destroy.
It isfor the continuation of unity and of a determined will
not to permit oil to drown Israel that seekers of peace and of
a security for Israel must continue to labor. There will be
differences with the President and with Congress. That
should not deter anyone from striving to regain their
friendship and good will. The support of this country for
Israel is too vital to be abandoned or to be sacrificed even to
the minutest degree.
March of the Bigots
The television expose of the Nazi crimes had only just
begun when the Nazi spirit became evident again.
Under the heading "Holocaust or Hoax," the inheritors of
the Hitler savageries advertised theinfamous book by the
Northwestern University professor, Arthur R. Butz, deny-
ing there was a Holocaust or the murder of the Six Million.
The Germans themselves confirm the murder of the Ele-
ven Million, Jews and non-Jews. But a defamer of truth
would revive the Nazi idea!
Which serves as another warning to be on guard lest the
worst in human thinking should come to fruition.
Armed struggle is the only way to liberate
Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not tac-
tics.
— PLO Covenant, Article 9
The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab view-
point, is a national duty to repulse the Zionist,
imperialist invasion from the great Arab home-
land and to purge the Zionist presence from
A Commendable Task to Solve Many
Palestine.
Problems for Hard of Hearing
PLO
Covenant,
Aritcle
15
—
Beverly Mitchell belongs to the class of idealists who
The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the estab-
dedicate
themselves to causes involving deeprooted human
lishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal,
problems.
With her husband, the late Robert Mitchell, she
regardless of the passage of time .. .
became deeply involved in the hard-of-hearing affliction
— PLO Covenant, Article 19
and the need to encourage confidence among the afflicted in
Such is the menace to be aware of. It is an established facing up to the facts of life.
fact, yet the media keep searching for a scapegoat. They
Now' Mrs. Mitchell, through the Mitchell Buddy Work-
found one in Menahem Begin. They blame him for a "hard
line" and few have indicated when the settlements on the shop, with the cooperation of the Jewish Community Cen-
ter,
is introducing educational data to aid the hard of hear-
West Bank are utilized as an argument of Israeli intransi-
gence, that of the 72 or 73 new settlements established ing.
The
advocacy is for the use of lip reading. The proposals
since 1967, only five are of origin during the Begin regime.
There must be no confusion about the speculated "split" are out of experience bought at the cost of personal in-
in American Jewry over the new issues affecting Israel and volvements.
The teaching-training-educational session planned to
over the leadership of Prime Minister Begin. The 37 Jews
who joined in what sounded like an appeal for a peace advance the ideas of the Mitchells at the Jewish Center on
May
31 mark a progressive step in aid for the deaf and hard
different from Begin's — as if Begin and his associates and
all Israelis are craving for anything but peace! — and of hearing. The Mitchell Workshop and the Jewish Center
jointly
earn the community's gratitude for a program so
people like Meg Greenfield (Newsweek) give the impres-
sion that they represent an overwhelming number of Jews. vitally needed by many.
Lag b'Omer Has Ancient, Modern Overtones
Hitler committed suicide
death of Rabbi Simon bar- delegation to Rome which
Yochai. He died of natural succeeded in alleviating the on the day before Lag
(Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc , )
Lag B'Omer takes place causes instead of having harsh decrees which Had- b'Omer and his remains
on the 33rd day of the cere- been murdered by the Ro- rian had set against the were said to be still burning
monial count that is per- mans who sought to kill him Jews. The holiday thus on Lag b'Omer, this bring-
formed daily between the by their torturous methods. indicates some end to ing the end to the Holocaust
Passover holiday (its second He even headed a Jewish Jewish persecutions. on Lag b'Omer.
day) and Shavuot. This
seven-week period is gener-
ally observed as a period of
mourning for the tragic
side, in spirit and in deed.
did exterminate Jews.
By AXEL SPRINGER
death of the followers of
(Editor's note: Springer
It is not that Israel can
Who could dare in the face
Rabbi Akiba after the Bar
is a leading West German of such writing on the wall only take and we must
Kochba uprising.
publisher,
journalistic
only
give. Jerusalem,
to
regard
modern
Israel,
Gaonic sources prohibited
friend and financial sup- now 30-years-old, as a state
symbol of the survival of
marriages during this
porter
of
Israel.
A
longer
like any other, the relations the Jewish spirit, Jewish
period and some "(quoted in
version of this article ap- of the Germans to that willpower, Jewish reli-
the name of Rav Hai Gaon)
peared in the Israel In- country as any other than gion and Jewish
even prohibited work from
dependence Day sup- special?
tolerance stands for us as
sunset to sunrise during
plementin Die Welt.)
an example and a source
this period.
That we Germans must of hope. The once di-
Young
Germans
mur-
According to some
dered in the occupied West endeavor, even almost 35 vided, now reunited city,
authorities this mourning
Bank by Israel's deadly years after Auschwitz, to
in which Jewry sees its
period ended on Lag b'Omer
enemies, Germans come to find reconciliation with historic roots and is his-
and thus it was the first day
the
Jews
throughout
the
the land of the Jews in the
torically crowned, is the
free of mourning during
spirit of atonement, gone world — burdened with place where a great chal-
that period. Others only
home to Germany in coffins the past, concerned for lenge was accepted and
-considered the day of Lag
— hope and horror, past and the present and trusting
withstood.
b'Omer as an interruption
present blend and enjoin in the future — is self-
during that said period
We Germans also are
profound reflection, as evident. And where it is
which continued until
challenged, we also must
not
self-evident,
some-
_ dramatic in these young
Shavuot.
withstand.
thing
is
wrong.
people's fates as in the late
The first Jewish upris-
Our first duty is to make
To feel this obligation as a
summer of 1972 when
ing against a Roman
young Israeli sportsmen burden or a nuisance would Israel's cares our own, to
legion took place on the
remain on the alert before
be
to
deny
humanity's
and
were
murdered
on
German
day before this date and
history's horizon. Only the persistent menace and
soil by the same assailants.
the revolt was successful
Israelis and Germans side those who perceive, in the danger of Arab fanaticism
in forcing the Romans to
depth of their hearts and the and Palestinian obsession
by
side,
tragically
united
in
withdraw (at least
the community of death and breadth of their under- with murder. Fate decreed
temporarily).
standing, that Israel we that we should feel on the
mourning,
challenged
to-
The Kabalistic leaders set
gether by a force willed to have been given a chance to body of our own people what
much of the tone for the
prove ourselves anew can terrorism means. Israel
exterminate
Israel,
as
the
celebration of Lag b'Omer
murderous Nazi mentality help to fulfill what must be gives us an example of how
when they claimed that it
fulfilled:
to stand at Israel's to resist it.
resolved to exterminate and
was the anniversary of the
By RABBI SAMUEL FOX
The Germans' Duty to Israel
1