THE JEWISH NEWS Incorgoratfrig The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of duly 20. 1951 h Newspapers. Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association Nternher American As , ociiition of English..lewi , Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865. Southfield, Mich. 48075 , Subscription $12 a year . "lecond-C1.1.-, Pu,toge Paid at Southfield. Michigan and Additional Mailing Office CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Business Manager Editor and Publisher ALAN HITSKY News Editor HEIDI PRESS Assistant Newr Editor DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 20th day of lyar. 5738. the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion. Leviticus 25:1-26:2. Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 32: 6-27. Candle lighting, Friday, May 26, 8:38 p.m. VOL. LXXIII, No. 12 Page Four Friday, May 26, 1978 The M.E.: Calling Spade a Spade An endless controversy clouds the issues af- fecting the Middle East and American interests in protecting democratic principles in that em- battled area. As long as the so-called Palesti- nian problem is permitted to be sensationalized as an Israeli crime of Jews having occupied the Palestinians' territory and Anwar Sadat is popularized as the great peace missionary who is being obstructed by the inflexible Menahem Begin, the atmosphere will be charged with hatemongering. Israel is a state, internationally recognized and affirmed, built by Jews for Jews in fulfill- ment of a heritage and Prophecy. If this is not yet fully affirmed and acclaimed, then there is a lack of justice in the world. The Palestinian issue has been debunked and the realities must be attested. There was a par- titioning of territory. Israel was established and Jordan was given the Arab function in the di- vision of the Holy Land. Only half-a-million Arabs had fled from Israel when the state was reborn, contrary to the wishes of the state- builders. Now there are a million and a half of those claiming to be Palestinians. They live in freedom in Jordan and there are the refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. All could be accommodated in Arab lands. Saudi Arabia alone needs a million workers and that number is imported from other lands. But the refugees, whose sustenance comes in the main from the United States, are being perpetuated as weapons against Israel. These facts are not unknown to Anwar Sadat and his Arab compatriots as well as the U-.S. officials who are concerned with the Middle East. Nevertheless the issue keeps suffering from factual pollutions. It needs correcting. The roots of the most recent distortions are in Jerusalem where the Egyptian leader was given a royal reception and since then has been demanding total abnegation by Israel. The de- mand for a surrender is so drastic that the time has come for an expose of the true facts and of a demand for justice dominated by realism in a situation charged with dynamite. What are the facts? Egypt's President Anwar Sadat was wel- comed gloriously, majestically by Israel and the masses of Israelis. There was a spark of hope for peace for which Israel keeps begging in the in- ternational arena. What did Sadat say? He re- peated all the demands that are in the Arab terminology when dealing with Israel. He de- manded abandonment of territory which Israel maintains as protective for survival, he has asked for withdrawal from Jerusalem and even proposed establishment of a state for Arafat's forces whose covenant calls for Israel's destruc- tion. Menahem Begin did not reply as arrogantly as he is described by his enemies. He offers self- rule for the Arabs on the West Bank. He is willing to keep negotiating for peace. He pleads for the right to discuss an amicable agreement with Egypt. Why did Sadat interrupt such dis- cUssions, thereby ending the peace negotia- tions? He has thus far failed to explain his re- petitive animosities. Hasn't the time come for a showdown, for calling a spade a spade, for abandoning the policies of hiding behind cliches and distor- tions? If there is to be the courage of calling a spade a spade, then the limelight also will have to be aimed at Washington and at the President. Mr. Carter cannot continually glorify Sadat and at the same time imply a faulting of Begin. It isn't enough to acclaim a friendship for Israel "forever" without fortifying the assurance with protective support in the "present." And the current analyses demand that the true facts be stated, that the Sadat policies which continue to demand submissions leading to Israel's demise must be exposed and rejected. Of course, this is admittedly an oil-soaked problem. Is it conceivable that in civilized society the threat of a boycott on oil shipments by Arab states can be permitted to affect the peace of the entire world? Indeed, all mankind may be affected by what transpires in the Middle East, not the security of Israel alone. The self-respect of the United States also is at issue because of this natioa's involvement in that area and the need for pro- tection of democratic principles in a seriously- charged area of the world. A Newly-Menacing Front Line Forty-four U.S. Senators took into considera- tion the creation of a new front line for Israel in the adopted packaged jet sale to Arab countries. The 54 opponents acted, as the argument went, for moderation as well as protection of Saudi Arabia against Russia. In the meantime, Israel must be prepared to defend herself on another front, with Saudi Arabia becoming another potential border danger. This is really what has happened as a result of the new policy introduced by President Jimmy Carter. Precedents point to pilots being trained in this country for the jets to be sold to Saudi Arabia and to Egypt. Israel will have to strain herself even more militarily to prevent menac- ing consequences from the approval given by the President for the sale of the most powerful planes to nations which have never denied their animosity to the Jewish state that is entirely based on an aim to destroy the state. Two aspects in an issue charged with danger must not be ignored. One is the fact that the total of arms for the Arabs overwhelms what- ever sales will be made to Israel. And the pro- vision of planes for Israel involves sales, not gifts. The second item is one of human values. Instead of aiming for improvement of the living standards of all peoples involved, in the Middle East, encouragement has been given to an arms race. That's the trouble. An arms race has been escalated and human values ignored. That's the pity when an arms race predominates and creates new, menacing frontiers for a state sur- rounded by enemies. 'From the Ghetto' Abraham Cahan as Pioneer of U.S. Jewish Authors Abraham Cahan acquired fame as author, Socialist leader and leader in the acculturation movement among the immigrants who came in the largest numbers from Russia in the early years of this century. His popularity was especially evidenced as editor of the Jewish Daily Forward from 1903 until his death in 1951. It was due to him that the Forward became the most important non-English lan- guage newspaper in the U.S. Yet he had another career — that of initiating the literature about Jews and by Jews in this country. This is the fascinating account of Cahan's literary accomplishments in "From the Ghetto — Fiction of Abraham Cahan," (University of Massachusetts Press). Dr. Jules Chametzky, University of Massachusetts professor of English, provides a history of the era in which Cahan was one of the most influential figures on New York's East Side and in the Socialist and labor ranks. Primarily, this notable book of literary criticism, while dissecting the works of Cahan, also relates to other authors who have, since Cahan, been major in America's literary spheres. Prof. Chametzky credits Cahan not only with being the predeces- sor of the major literary writers of the present era, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Michael Gold, Henry Roth, Philip Roth, Alfred Kazin and many others — Cahan literally fathered the brilliant chapters of creative writings by Jewish authors, their Jewish themes. Not only the most popular of Calian's works, "The Rise of David Levinsky," but scores of other Cahan works, especially his memoirs, the five-volume historical record, are under thorough scrutiny by the author of "From the Ghetto." The genius of Abraham Cahan as editor and story-teller, as de- lineator of Jewish experiences in this country during the years of large Jewish immigrations into this country, provide Dr. Chametzky with the opportunity of reviewing Cahan's role as labor leader and Socialist, as well as the creative leader in Yiddish journalism. Interestingly, the formation of the Jewish Daily Forward in 1897 had the cooperation of such noted Jewish labor leaders as Joseph Barondes, Louis Miller, Morris Hilquit and others, and in association with these and other notables of his day Cahan's name figures promi- nently in the significant chapter of American Jewish history de- scribed in "From the Ghetto." Of course, there were eminent non-Jews who were befriended in association with Cahan, notable among them being William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane, Eugene V. Debs, Norman Hapgood and others, and their roles add importantly to this volume. Cahan's association with Sholem Aleichem, the fact that he ad- mired and published the works of I. L. Peretz, and other important contributions to Jewish literature, are so prominently recorded in "From the Ghetto" that it assumes a vital role in Jewish literary criticism. There is a great social significance to the analyses of the Cahan novels and short stories and his delineations of the early years of the large immigrant influx in this country. That which marked integra- tion then is strange to the present generation, and the informative nature of the researched study of Cahan's works emerges in this volume as a notable addition to the study of American Jewry's history as it has developed into a present-day status of an overwhelming native-born population.