2 Friday, October 12, 1919 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Bayard Rustin Sets the Record Straight on the Middle East and the Conflict Created Among Americans . : . the Russian Training of- the Terrorists Serves to Inflame Mideast By Philip Slomovitz Bayard Rustin Makes His Plea for Decency in Black-Jewish Relations Bayard Rustin, president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a member of the Black Leadership _Forum, is among the few noted personalities in American society who has been able to rise above prejudice and hysteria properly to evaluate a situation which is being judged as marking a collapse in black-Jewish relations. Rustin is a leading factor in the vitally needed objec- tivity in dealing with an issue that should have been but was not avoided. He is among the few who recog- nize that there are dif- ferences of opinion on some issues to be respected but which must not be permit- ted to create discord. In a very important arti- cle, "Black-Jewish Relations," in the New Leader, Rustin presented an historical background of Jewish attitudes on the BAYARD RUSTIN black problems, dating back not to the decade upon which those who have created animosities are leaning but an entire century. This eminent leader earns recognition for fearlessness in his treatment of the serious problem. He did not hesitate to refer to the quota system and to affirmative action, in his New Leader article, in which he stated: As the '70s approached, blacks and Jews found themselves in honest disagreement regarding the nature of affirmative action .. . For Jews, who had painful memories bf exclu- sion by quotas, this new emphasis of the civil rights movement was a source of serious concern. Yet while Jewish organizations actively opposed quotas, they also continued to speak out force- fully — much more forcefully than virtually any other white group — in favor of school desegrega- tion, open housing laws, and social and economic reforms long favored and needed by the black community. It shoUld be noted, too, that Jews were not alone in voicing dissent on quotas. Some blacks charge that Jewish organizations and intellectuals pre- cipated the Bakke and Weber cases, but nothing could be further from the truth .. . -- There is no excuse for enmity over an issue which, even if it cannot lead to unity or unanimity, can at least be tolerated, as Rustin does in the above. But there is now the vital issue involving black support for the PLO, sensationalized in the shuttle search for dip- lomacy by the American blacks on their recent visits with the PLO. It is on this score that Rustin, in his New Leader article, dissociated himself from demagoguery. He states: But there are fundamental differences between the two issues. For one thing, the acceptance or rejection of quotas does not threaten the very existence of either blacks or Jews. By contrast, the legitimization of the PLO, a group that has as its principal objective the destruction of the state of Israel, could alter the precarious international balance and set in motion forces capable of even- tually producing a catastrophe in the Middle East. In such circumstances, it seems to me that no one, be they black or Jewish should consider any type of compromise on the PLO question. Unfortunately several prominent black leaders today seem to be attempting to link the question of the PLO with other underlying black-Jewish dis- putes. Perhaps their strategy is to win conces- sions from Jews on the other issues by threaten- ing to build a constituency for the PLO in the United States. Yet even though this approach may initially ap- pear rather shrewd and potentially beneficial to the black people, I believe it is tactically disastr- ous: The arrogant demand for negotiations on what has to be a non-negotiable item for Israel will do irreparable damage to the black commu- nity — first, by causing serious internal divisions; and second, by further weakening thejiberal co- alition, whose components — especially labor — will be alienated by the slightest involvement with the PLO. Furthermore, any black relationship with the PLO, especially if it leads to the formation of a pro-PLO, pro-Arab black constituency in the United States, will become a permanent and in- surmountable obstacle to the improvement of black-Jewish relations. Blacks who ignore this are, quite frankly, out of touch with the basic political realities in America, and have little or no understanding of the Jewish instinct for survival. While I fear the result of a collapse of the black-JeWrish alliance, let me stress that I think the current debate about blacks and the PLO goes The Shocking Ruling on Shofar: The Inexcusable Intolerance the rights of Conservative and Reform Jews are at stake! That's when religious intolerance becomes evident, and there is yet to be evidenced an apology or expression of regret by the guilty who perpetrated the inexcusable action in Israel. It is no wonder that American Jews protested, that four Detroit Conservative rabbis were among the scores of their colleagues nationwide who registered their sense of disgust over what had occurred. Indeed, the advertise- ments referred to and the attempt at excommunicating Jews deserved condemnation. Heads of the leading Conservative lay movement organizations in the U.S. registered a protest during the Holy Day period against an intolerable occurrence in Jerusalem. Here is what had happened, an incident already widely known which deserved recalling. In advertisements in Israeli newspapers, the Jerusalem Chief Rabbis Bezalel Zolti and Shalom Mashash declared that a Jew who hears the blowing of the Shofar, the ram's horn, in a Conservative synagogue, has not fulfil- led his Halakhic obligation of hearing the Shofar on Rosh Hashana and at the end of Yom Kippur. They called on the public "not to be seduced by the propaganda of this move- ment, and to refrain from taking part in any of its activi- ties." Shocked by such a resort to excommunication the heads of the Conservative movements addressed the follow- ing protest to President Yitzhak Navon and Prime Minister Menahem Begin of Israel, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek and World Zionist Organization Executive Chairman Leon Dulzin: We the leaders of the Conservative Movement are saddened and appalled by the attacks of Rab- bis Zolti and Mashash, the Chief Rabbis of Jerusalem, on the Conseivative Movement and Conservative Jews in Israel. By their distortion of Jewish law and tradition they seek to introduce destructive divisiveness into Jewish life. Rabbis Zolti and Mashash should be aware of the catas- trophic results of such statements from the past lessons of Jewish history. We call upon you in the interest of the unity of the Jewish people to condemn their action in the strongest possible terms and to call upon Jews to approach the New Year in the spirit of love and harmony and common purpose which befits us all. Wouldn't it have been well to keep this experience hidden in Jewish archives, in the hope that it would not become the means of adding to anti-Jewish propaganda? We keep emphasizing the freedoms granted to all faiths in Israel. This is done in truth! But it can't be defended when Russia's Diabolical Role as Trainee of PLO Terrorists Soviet Russia plays a diabolical role in fomenting strife in the Middle East. Evidence is piling up that the USSR is the chief supporter of PLO activities. PLO terrorists are and have been trained in Russia. The full intept of these activities was exposed in televised CBC and PBS programs which gave full details of the Russian-PLO joint role in international terrorist activities. Herbert Krosney, producer of the program who is asso- ciated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, fully detailed the contents of his program in an article in New York Magazine, entitled "The PLO's Moscow Connection." There are defectors from the PLO who provided de- tailed accounts which served as background for the Kros- ney revelations: Recently, an officer of the PLO defected from the organization, charging corruption by higher-ups. After months of negotiations, this de- fector agreed to be interviewed — provided he was granted a transcript of our discussion before it was released. Besides detailed allegations of extravagant spending and life-styles on the part of PLO offi- cials — including Foreign Minister Farouk Kad- dumi — the defector provided additional informa- tion on Soviet influence upon the Palestinians. For example, he claimed that Hajis Mayil, the PLO's contact with the United Nations forces in southern Lebanon, "is known to be the Soviets' special representative ... He too went to the Soviet Union for training." far beyond mere considerations of political expe- diency. Indeed, if blacks were to refrain from dealing with the PLO merely out of the self- serving desire to ingratiate themselves with Jews, my point would have been missed entirely. The ultimate issue, I believe, is not one of tactical wis- dom, but of basic morality. For in acting as a catalyst for building support for the PLO, black leaders, no matter what their motivations, would be providing aid and comfort to an organi- zation committed to racism, terrorism and authoritarianism. As for the immediate question of how the severe damage done to black-Jewish relations can be repaired, in my view there is only one answer: We blacks, who legitimately demand sensitivity and understanding from Jews on matters concerning black self-interest, must be willing to develop the same sort of sensitivity and understanding about Jewish concerns. The fact that many of us are at present entertaining the notion of fostering some type of black-PLO friendship suggests to me that this necessary sensitivity is desperately lacking among blacks. In any case, we ought now to be speaking out against the PLO — not simply to ease black- Jewish tensions, but because having won our basic rights through nonviolence and organized pressure in a democratic nation, we have an obli- gation to oppose those forces in the world, like the PLO, which flaunt the political power of the gun and openly mock the values and goals we have fought for. This is objectivity. It is a challenge to shuttle sen- sationalism. Jewish communities throughout the land keep extend- ing hands of friendship to their black neighbors. There is no other way of reacting as Americans and as human beings. Now there is a duty upon the masses of the black people to say to the shuttlers that they cannot revive the hatreds of slavery and impose them on society by asking for recogni- tion of terrorism. Surely the rational in the midst of an American civilized society composed of many elements, differing religions, differing skin colorations, must live to- gether in a spirit of loyalty to the right to differ on the adjustable and the compulsion to be in accord when human life and dignity is involved. The Bayard Rustin view must • dominate over the rabble-rouser when the final judgment is proclaimed. ilk He also attempted to explain Arafat's role in the support situation. No one understands Arafat's ideology, and no one understands him," the defec- tor said. "He, of course, gets no money from the Russians — they don't pay anybody. But they help him attain influence." "Arafat is an opportunist and would not make an important move without first consulting the Soviet ambassador. He meets him once or twice a week, sometimes once in two weeks, in order to report his plans and current activities," " says the PLO defector. "When he comes back to Beirut from Russia, the truth is that he has fully detailed new plans, designed by the Russians. While the defector's bitter observations may well be exaggerated, taken in a broader context they seem to contain a good deal of merit. "It's important to realize that when you say the Soviet Union supports terrorism," says Dr. Ray S. Cline, a former deputy director of the Central Intelli- gence Agency, "you do not mean that they direct and command each terrorist activity. That would be impossible and not very useful. "What they do is supply the infrastructure of -- terror: the money, the guns, the training, the background information, the communications, the propaganda that will inspire individual ter- rorist groups." This view is strongly supported by General Shlomo Gazit, head of Israeli military intelligence from 1974 until early this year. He claimes that the PLO has actively used its sophisticated training to provide assistance for other terrorist groups — including Japan's Red Army, Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang, or Ireland's IRA. "That, I think, is the most dangerous aspect, from the international point of view, of Palesti- nian terrorism." The facts are on hand, and Prime Minister Menahem Begin's warning of the Russian danger in the Middle East to the United States and to the free world — whatever there is left of free expression — is apparent. Unfortunately, the warnings fall on deaf ears. Whence cometh help — for Israel and the free world?