JEWISH NEWS (LISPS 2 -5 520)
THE
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PHILIP 'SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
s HEIDI PRESS
Advertising Manager
Assistant News Editor
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the seventh day of Tevet, 5739, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 44:18-47:27. Prophetical portion, Exekiel 37:15-28.
Tuesady, Fast of the 10th of Tevet
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 32:11-14; 34:1-10.
Prophetical portion (afternoon only), Isaiah 55:6-56:8.
•
Candle lighting, Friday, Jan 5, 4:57 p.m.
VOL. LXXIV, No. 18
Page Four
Friday, January 5, 1979
Poison of Inerasable Hatred
_
Objective students of events affecting the
Middle East are emphasizing, convincingly,
that while Israel is dealing with the tangibles,
and has made many concessions to Egypt, the
Egyptian negotiators keep demanding the in-
tangibles. Israel concedes to withdrawals, has
given up the Abu Rodeis oil fields and offers to
abandon three air bases. Egypt asks the Israelis
to bow to unreasonable demands, such as per-
mitting Anwar Sadat to join Syria in the event
of a new war, contrary to treaty specifications.
Perhaps this is not surprising. After the his-
toric Sadat visit in Jerusalem in November
1977, the love feast threatened to end when the
hatreds of the past were revived and Menahem
Begin was called a Shylock in the Egyptian
press.
Have conditions improved to any degree?
There are very sad indications of ingrained hat-
reds which may be inerasable. In a report to the
New York Times from Cairo regarding the fal-
tering peace talks, Christopher Wren revealed
the following:
"Mustafa Amin, a leading columnist, sum-
med up a popular view of the negotiations when
he wrote several days ago: 'This may be the first
instance in history where a thief claims com-
pensation for his own crime.'
"Articles by writers such as Anis Mansour
have become little more than personal attacks
on Prime Minister Begin for allegedly thwart-
ing President Sadat's efforts to achieve peace.
Mr. Begin was never popular in Cairo, but opin-
ions of him reached a new low after he accused
President Carter, a popular figure here, of sid-
ing with Egypt.
"While Egyptians pride themselves on their
tolerance, some street interviews this week
turned up an undercurrent of anti-Jewish feel-
ing. 'We always say, 'You are the loser if you
deal with a Jewish merchant,' and I think that
Egypt is now dealing with a Jewish merchant —
Begin,' said Murad Sami a graduate student in
commerce.
" 'We are now dealing with Jews, not Israelis,'
said Hussein Ismail, a government employee."
There is another tragic note in the Wren re-
port, Mrs. Sadat was believed to be an influence
for good and for fair play. It was said that she
had induced her husband to work for peace. She
is the same lady who joined an anti-Israel fac-
tion at an international meeting of women in
Mexico about three years ago. She was forgiven
and treated as a friend. But Wren makes an-
other expose in his report:
"President Sadat's wife, Jihan, canceled
plans to address an international medical con-
ference in Cairo early this month after she
learned that several Israelis were among the
delegates. The Egyptian Medical Syndicate de-
cided to bar Israelis from further conferences
until a peace treaty has been concluded."
Here we have a reversion to the old prejudices
which indicate an emphasis on a basic fact. The
realism lies in the recognition that Israelis are
not alone in their quest for peace and their de-
sire for their nation's security. All Jews share in
that desire. What needs to be added is that mil-
lions of Christians nourish similar hopes.
But this is not the spirit in which the refer-
ences to Jews have been made. It is the Jew
chosen for opprobrium who emerges from the
hatred, with the general aspect of Arab think-
ing labeling everything that is hated as Zionis-
tic, Jewish or both. -
It is the inerasable poison that is in evidence.
It lends credence to the speech that was deliv-
ered in 1898 at the Austrian Social Democratic
Party congress in Vienna. Victor Aler, Austrian
labor leader, admonished his audience:
"The last anti-Semite will die only with the
last Jew."
This is the tragedy of our experiences. There
was a hope that it would become a myth. Sadat
and his cohorts regrettably may give the rooted
anti-Semitic theory a new twist of realism.
Iran's 80,000 Jews
Iran is the only Moslem country whose
Jewish population doubled in the last 40 years.
There were 40,000 Jews in Iran in 1935. Their
numbers increased to 90,000 in 1948, went
down to 80,000 in 1960, as a result of migra-
tions, and has remained at that number of
80,000 since then.
Now they are in jeopardy. Under the Shah
Pahlevi they had protection. There is an Israeli
consulate, El Al Israel Airlines operates there
and it is hoped that despite the damage to the El
40 Al offices in Teheran there will be a return to
normalcy. But the Moslem hostility is on the
-surface. It is not a hidden phenomenon. It links
with the Arab world's threats to the existence of
the Jewish state and to the safety of its institu-
tions and its people.
Added to the impending dangers is the hostil-
ity to the United States among the Shah's
enemies and the equating of that hostility with
the American-Israel friendship and the raising
of a Zionist issue in the process..
A repeating chapter in Jewish martyrology
may thus be re-opening. If the 80,000 Iranian
Jews are to face the danger of an emerging do-
minant factor in a land that may operate on
anti-Jewish policies, then the rescuing of a
population will present a very difficult problem.
Several thousand Iranian Jews have left the
country and many children have been
evacuated since the beginning of the rioting
more than a month ago, The search for and
providing security for a community as large as
Iranian Jewry cannot be a simple matter. It,
may not even be solvable. Under existing condi-
tions the status of 80,000 Iranian Jews is there-
fore a concern not to be taken lightly. With
Russia's influence a threat to any solution and
with the U.S. involvement becoming a major
task, there is a gravity in this problem for the
world community. It is major for Israel and
world Jewry.
Random House Volume
`Battles of Bible' Trace
Warfare in Ancient Eras
Biblical military history is impressively reconstructed in a most
informative volume, "Battles of the Bible: A Modern Military Evalua-
tion of the Old Testament" (Random House), in which former Israel
Ambassador to the U.S. Chaim Herzog describes the'Israeli triumphs
over the Phillistines, Arameans, Assyrians and others. .
Collaborating with him in the presentation of the vast material
included in this volume was Mordechai Gichon, former head of the
military history department of Tel Aviv University and presently
professor of Roman archeology at Tel Aviv University.
Herzog authored several volumes in which he evidenced his knowl-
edge of military experiences, including one on the Yom Kippur War of
1973. Thus, both authors are especially qualified to deal with the
subject of the "Battles of the Bible."
A rich history of military tactics, of weapons used in the battles
described, come into evidence from the invasion of Canaan by the
Israelites under Joshua, the conquests of David and Solomon and the
split of the land of Israel into the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel.
The successful rebellion of the Maccabees is an especially inform-
alive portion of a book that enlightens Bible students and undoub-
tedly proves fruitful for modern Israel in retracing the steps that
enabled a small nation to triumph over superior forces in the realms of
ancient times.
The illustrations used in defining the tactical methods and the
weapons that were used, and the 40 detailed maps, lend special
significance as history to this volume.
The authors' explanation of their approach to the book's topic and
their division of labor in tackling the subject matter is best explained
in the preface, which states:
"This book has been written in the attempt to apply to the biblical
narrative modern military thinking and understanding.
"Thus we were guided by a desire to narrate the military history of
the Bible in terms of modern military concepts aril accepted ter-
minology. In this manner, we felt, the military genius of many of the
captains of war whose story is related in the Bible would emerge in its
full scope, while the applicability of the principles of war over thr•
centuries of history would be re-emphasized.
"If there were any misgivings in our minds, when beginning our
research, about the applicability of modern military logic to events
two and three thousand years removed, these have been dissipated
during the actual process of writing this book. Bearing in mind the
quantitative changes brought about by modern weapons and equip-
ment, the same basic laws — strategy and tactics — that apply to
modern conventional warfare also applied to war in the distant past.
"The very rigid and distinct factors of geography have been a
principal and constant factor in commanders' considerations over the
ages. We ourselves, in the course of years of military service, have had
occasion to draw on the lessons of the ancient past as we contemplated
the problems of the present in Israel's struggle for independence and
for the maintenance of its security. The factors which influenced the
generals of Judea and Israel of old continue to influence the generals
of Israel today . ."
"This book is, a joint endeavor. We have enjoyed the benefit of
mutual advice and consultation. Each drew upon the specific experi-
ence and qualifications of his colleague. In writing the book, Mor-
dechai Gichon concentrated on the period of the First Temple while
Chaim Herzog dealt with the period of the Second Temple till Judah
the Maccabee's death in battle with which the Bible's military ac-
count ends."