1C1978 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Optimism Echoes at Camp David Summit (Continued from Page 1) formed conference sources ing on Jordan; that King told the Jewish Telegraphic Hussein of Jordan will Agency late Wednesday join in effecting the in- that there was "good reason troduction of such an au- to hope" for this favorable tonomy for these 'Arabs outcome and indicated and that Israel will retain American, Israeli and her military force and Egyptian officials were specially authorized working on the text of a radar systems on the joint statement. According to some in- borders of both Jordan and Egypt to assure Is- formed predictions the three foreign ministers will rael absolute security. These are the auguries, and the Big Moment may be at hand by the time this issue reaches its readers. * * * THURMONT, MD. (JTA) — The Camp David summit moved toward a successful conclusion, with Israel and Egypt expected to agree on the continuation of peace negotiations and also to a statement specifying new areas of understanding. In- jointly make the statement public. The three heads of government may then ap- pear jointly on television. The favorable outcome of the summit was the re- sult of an intensive effort this week by President Carter to persuade both Israeli Premier Menahem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat of the merits of American com- promise proposals on some of the disputed is- sues. The conference sources indicated that the expected statement would not mean that all the issues had been thrashed out to a com- monly accepted conclu- sion. But the Camp David summit will succeed beyond the minimal hopes voiced before it began by Begin who spoke in terms of an agreement merely to con- tinue negotiations. There is agreement on that — and also on matters of sub- stance. Begin is understood to have made significent con- cessions in the known Is- raeli positions. The U.S. delegation is understood to have steered Israel and Egypt around some the con- troversial concepts — such as "sovereignty" — which have proved to be stumbling blocks in the past. Dan Patir, spokesman for Begin, told the JTA that the Israeli delegation was "working for and hoping for" this successful outcome and he noted that all three delegations "were making efforts" to achieve it. Presidential Press Sec- retary Jody Powell said Wednesday that the Camp David summit con- ference "obviously" is "approaching the final stages." He said the discussions over the "past several days" have been "intense, specific and wide-ranging." He said the process, since Sunday, was one of "active consulta- tions" and "we are basically ZOA Convention Adopts Activist Program (Continued from Page 1) had served two terms as Detroit delegates president. In a brief acceptance attending the Washing- ton meetings included speech, Novick declared Dr. and Mrs. Alex Fried- that "Now is the time for the laender, Mr. and Mrs. Jewish people to close Harry Kraft, Dr. and Mrs. ranks." He said, "We must in- Kazdan, Mr. and Mrs. Panush, Mrs. Ann Silver, volve hundreds of Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman thousands of Jews who hold and Mr. and Mrs. Carmi concern for Israel and turn that concern into personal Slomovitz. Novick was elected president of the ZOA at the convention's election meet- ing. He succeeds Rabbi Joseph P. Sternstein, who involvement. This, as I see it, is the challenge to the ZOA." At an earlier session, Yehuda Blum, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, warned that "the tyrannous majority coalition at the United Nations may be plotting fresh attacks against Israel and Zionism," during the General Assembly which opens Tuesday. He added, however, that Is- rael's UN delegation "will speak out loud and clear not only on behalf of Is- rael but on behalf of the entire House of Israel, and in fact we all shall emerge a stronger, more unified people, bonded by the indivisible concept of Judaism, Zionism and Israel." At the opening session last week, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and Rabbi Sternstein had praised President Carter for calling the Camp David summit. Sternstein, how- ever, said the American Jewish community was ap- prehensive that Carter would try to- impose a set- tlement. Some of Israel's Best Friends By DAVID SCHWARTZ sides, Israel recalls with gratitude many Chris- tians. They remember that an early American president, John Adams, left a bequest for the teaching of Hebrew; that long before Theodore Herzl founded the Zionist movement, an Englishwoman, George "Daniel Deronda," cal- ling for the re- establishment of the Jewish state; that an- other Christian, Ode Wingate, perhaps England's greatest mili- tary leader of the present century, came to Pales- tine to teach Moshe Dayan and other Israelis the art of self-defense. Some of Israel's best friends have been Chris- tians. tities in Mexico. Writes the New Republic: "The U.S. The Christian Science government has been keep- Monitor the other day car- ing a secret with enormous ried a long story with the implications, but now it's headline: 'Israel Yearns to out. Mexico apparently has Help The Christians." petroleum reserves of up to Other papers have carried 200 billion barrels, making the story. It refers to the it an oil power potentially Christians of Lebanon. greater than Saudi Arabia. The poor Christians! No The CIA has known about .,one helps them except the Mexico's vast potential re- Jews. Syria sent an army serves since 1967, but the there supposedly to bring Administration has con- peace, but the purpose is cealed this information plain: to try to take advan- from the American people tage of the situation and de- and from Congress, appar- stroy the Christian power, ently to avoid undermining and make Lebanon part of energy policies premised on Syria. scarcity and foreign policies 41 ' The State Department based on muzzling the has frowned on the efforts of Arabs." Israel to help the Chris- The Administration, that tians. There are a sizable periodical goes on to say, number of Christians in has not thought very hard America. One would sup- about the opportunities that pose they would come to the The reason for the indif- Mexical oil presents. Be- aid of their co-religionists in ference to the Christians of sides lowering oil prices, the Lebanon, but they do noth- Lebanon is, of course, oil. development of Mexican ing. That involves big business. riches would alleviate the Jews feel differently. But the oil picture may rad- poverty in that country and He who has no compas- ically change in the next reduce the flow of illegal sion for his fellow men, few years. immigration into the It seems that oil has been United States. says the Talmud, is not of the seed of Abraham. Be- oozing out in great quan- Another secret came .1 1 (Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.) oozing out this week about Mr. Sadat and that visit to Jerusalem last November. It was a great event, you remember. The Egyptian leader, it was felt, had risen to giant stature. There was talk of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded him for his daring and noble action . . . Was there a secret story behind it? According to a story now making the rounds, Sadat's action didn't just come out of the blue, as they say. Behind it was another story. It seems that shortly after the installation of Begin as Prime Minister, the Israeli Intelligence dug up infor- mation about a Libyan plot to assassinate Sadat. Begin asked Israel's in- telligence men what they usually do in such matters. They replied that it was the custom to turn over such "finds" to the CIA. "Why not," asked Begin, "in this case turn over the facts to Sadat himself and see what he will do about This was done. The mate- rial was turned o ?,, Sadat, who investigated and found confirmation of the facts. And it was in the sequence of this friendly act by Israel that Sadat began his dialogue about peace with Israel. If Mr. Sadat gets the Nobel Peace Prize, a piece of it should go to Mr. Begin. in a situation now" where "the question" for both the conferees and the media is "what fruit will they (the discussions) bear." He reported that President Carter met with Israeli Premier Menahem Begin for 80 minutes Tues- day night in the President's quarters at Aspen Lodge and that members of all three delegations are engaged in a series of meet- ings within their own groups and with other dele- gations. But Powell em- phasized that "it is not possible to speculate" on the results "in an informed manner." Asked if President Car- ter had telephoned King Hussein of Jordan, Power said, "To my knowledge he has not." He said he would reply later to a question as to whether Sadat has spoken to Huessin since his telephone conversation with the Jordanian ruler in London on Sunday. But when asked if Jordan's in- volvement is such th.,4 summit can be regardec. four-way conference, Powell said he had , no information about Jordan's involvement apart from the Sadat- Hussein conversation. Boris Smolar's `Between You .. ,and Me' Editolfin-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.) 40 YEARS OF JEWISH GENEROSITY: The United Jewish Appeal is now mapping plans to celebrate its 40th year of existence. Much has changed in the field of Jewish fund-raising during these 40 years. I remember the time — Nay back before the UJA was formed as the merged fund-raising arm of the Joint Distribution committee and the United Pales- tine Appeal — when each of the two agencies conducted separate and competing drives. A study on Jewish philan- thropic giving was ordered by the JDC from a noted Ameri- can Jewish economist. The study was prepared and printed for distribution, but never distributed. The study was suppressed. Why? Because it indicated that among the JDC donors there were a few whose gifts were $10,000 and higher. Some JDC leaders questioned the wisdom of making this fact public. "What," they argued, "to reveal that there are in this country Jews who make such substantial contributions for a Jewish philanthropy cause. What may non-Jews say? Would this not provoke among them anti-Semitic thinking? They usually look upon the Jews as 'poor immigrants.' " That was more than 40 years ago. Today, thousands of Jews in this country contribute to the United Jewish Ap- peal $10,000 and more yearly. And this is no longer kept a secret from the non-Jewish world. On the contrary, Jewish generosity is admired by non-Jewish groups. It is cited in laudable terms as an example of philanthropic giving. Among UJA givers one can find today at least 20 whose gifts range from over $500,000 to $1 million. There are also about 360 contributors whose contributions range between $500,000 and $100,000, and some 550 whose yearly gifts range between $100,000 and $50,000. More than 5,300 people donate betwen $50,000 and $10,000. A $-10,000 con- tribution is by UJA considered today in the last category of "big giver." A PROUD RECORD: The Jewish community is proud of its record of generous giving for Jewish needs. Jewish philanthropic giving for general causes also enjoys an enviable reputation. The Council of Jewish Federations reports that Jews in this country contribute to their federations for charitable purposes about $500 million a year. In the course of the last 40 years American Jewr i- tributed to their local communities more than $7 Es- a. Some 70 percent of this sum went to meet part of Israel's social and cultural needs and to assist needy Jewish com- munities in other overseas lands where the JDC is operat- ing. This huge sum does not include the many millions of dollars raised separately by Jewish groups in independent fund-raising drives. Hadassah, for instance, raises on its own some $20 million a year. Brandeis University raises about $20,000 a year in its independent campaign. The Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Appeal for the program of Reform Jewry raise about $22 million. Not included is the approximately $3 billion raised for Israel Bonds since the Israel Bond campaign started in 1951; nor the millions of dollars raised in capital funds by Israels universities, by the Jewish National Fund and other projects for Israel. More than $100 million a year is now being provided by the Jewish federations for local services, excluding refugee care. The allocations include funds to Jewish hospitals, Jewish centers, Jewish family and child-care agencies, homes for Jewish aged, Jewish education and community relations.