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64 Friday, October 12, 1979
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
4
Palestinians' Status Defined: PLO Claims Exposed
The Conference of Presidents of Major American
is unknown anywhere in the Middle East outside
Jewish Organizations has issued a "Middle East Memo" in freedom
of Israel.
response to recent criticsm of Israel's position of not dealing
In the 12 years of Israeli administration of these ter-
with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The memo, ritories, the Arab residents have prospered economically as
entitled "On Talking With the PLO," stated:
never before; health has improved and longevity has in-
Why shouldn't the United States deal with the creased dramatically; education has become universal;
PLO? What's wrong with talking?
.
local elections with universal suffrage have been insti-
Nothing is wrong with talking. But we should be talk- tuted, and freedom of travel, of speech and press exists to a
ing to the Palestinian Arabs residing in the West Bank and
degree never before enjoyed by those resident or by Arabs
Gaza, not to the PLO.
in any other nation in the Middle East.
Is there really a difference between the Palesti-
Understandably, the Palestinian Arabs do not want to
nian Arabs and the PLO?
continue to live under Israel's, or anyone's occupation. And
All the difference in the world. The Arabs of the West
Bank and Gaza are peaceful residents who have demon- so it was agreed at Camp David that through negotiations,
strated that they are prepared to live in peace with Israel. they should be granted autonomy. But they have not
entered the negotiations because the PLO threatens to
The PLO's singular aim is the destruction of Israel. No
assassinate
any West Bank Arab leader who dares to sit at
state should be asked to deal with any country or organiza- the peace table
with Israel.
tion whose public purpose is to liquidate that state.
Why would the PLO assassinate Palestinians who
How did the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank want to live in peace with Israel?
and Gaza come under Israel's jurisdiction in the first
The PLO is an umbrella of 16 mostly Marxist or Maoist
place?
terrorist bands who have committed atrocities not only
On the day when the world's only Jewish state was against Israeli civilians but against thousands of Arabs
created in 1948, it was invaded by seven Arab states. While who work in Israel or are willing to live in peace with a
they did not succeed in destroying Israel, Jordan did suceed Jewish state in the Middle East. Their goal is and always
in occupying the West Bank; Egypt occupied Gaza. In 1967, was the destruction of Israel. Indeed, they were created in
when the same Arab states again attempted to liquidate 1964, when Jordan — not Israel — occupied the West Bank.
Israel, Jordan was forced to retreat from the West Bank and
In 1970, the PLO attempted to take over Jordan; the
Egypt from Gaza. Since then, both territories have been
move was repulsed by King Hussein, who killed as many
administered by Israel.
PLO members as his army could find and deported the rest.
It is noteworthy that in all the years Jordan occupied Since
that time the PLO has made its headquarters in
the West Bank and Egypt controlled Gaza, no attempt was Lebanon, where a similar attempt to take over its host
ever made to establish a Palestinian state.
country led to the more than 60,000 deaths in the Lebanese
What about the human rights of the Palestinians? civil war.
It is cynicism of a very high order for Arab states to
Any successful negotiation on the issue of autonomy
complain about the human rights of the West Bank-Gaza would undermine whatever claim the PLO may have to the
residents while slavery still exists in Saudi Arabia and loyalty and support of the Palestinian Arabs; that support,
to the extent that it exists at all, is the direct result of PLO
terror and threats of terror against the West Bank-Gaza
Arabs and their leaders.
But from the point of view of American interests
— especially our need for an assured supply of oil —
isn't it necessary for us to deal with the PLO?
The exact opposite is true. The PLO is supported
militarily, financially and politically by the Soviet Union.
A PLO state or even a PLO presence on the West Bank
would be a priceless gift to the USSR.
How about from Israel's point of view?
Israel has agreed to negotiate autonomy for the resi-
dents of the West Bank and Gaza. It has not agreed to allow
the PLO to become ensconced on the West Bank, and it
never will. The PLO almost destroyed Jordan in 1970 and
Lebanon in 1976. If this is what the terrorists did to Arabs,
can you imagine what they have in mind for the Isr. ?
On this issue of dealing with the PLO, do
can and Israeli interests diverge?
. They are identical. Both nations seek the emergence of
moderation and the defeat of radical terrorism in the Mid-
dle East. The United States would suffer a crushing and
economically devastating defeat if the PLO were to be
allowed to shoot its way into the peace negotiations to
establish its presence in the West Bank and to bring along
its Soviet suppliers — and masters. And a defeat for
America would be a crushing defeat for Israel too. -
Israel's very survival would be threatened by a PLO
presence on the West Bank., Israel is the only democracy
and has the only stable government in the Middle East.
Just as important, Israel is by far the strongest ally of the
United States in the region. Israel's democratic society and
military strength are the major obstacles to Soviet
encroachment into the oil-rich Middle East. A diplomatic
defeat for Israel would be a serious blow to American
prestige and to the American goal of blocking the USSR
from intruding itself into the area.
The Coveted Nobel Prize Has Se veral Disadvantages and Perils
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
later?
Yes, I repeat, what hap-
Maybe you have som e- pened later?
times said to yourself,
The first thing that hap-
wouldn't mind winning t I
he
pened
was about a dozen
Nobel Prize. There is th
money angle, but that is th e people called him on the
lesser part. It's the hon e telephone to congratulate
that is the great thing. Yo or him. Well, that pleased him
can take the prize and sho u — but alas, that was only
it to your friends. "See wh w the beginning. The tele-
I just got" — and your the at phone never stopped ring-
would heave — it probabl st ing for days. It rang during
would heave a couple y the day and the ringing of
of the phone awakened him at
times.
night. People that he had
Even if you are the mod
est type and try to avoi d never seen or heard of,
called. The jingle of the
boasting, there is nothing t
stop you from casually ask ° phones was so incessant,
ing, "Did you read that littl - that finally fearing he
would become a nervous
item in the big headlines o
wreck,
he packed up some of
the paper about my winnin
g his belongings and moved to
the Nobel Prize?"
Yes, admittedly, ther e a hotel.
After a month, he felt it
are advantages to winnin
the Nobel Prize, but mayb g
e might be safe to return, but
you are better off not win he moved to a new apart-
ment and now has an un-
ning it. In some ways, be
lieve me, it has its hand - listed phone.
icaps and if any of you r
All of this happenedto a
friends are working to. ge t man who is not only one of
you the prize, it might be the great writers but a man
well for you to ask them to noted for his friendliness
lay off. You know the old and consideration — a man
classical line: "Beware o f who sympathizes with all
the Greeks bearing pre- • people, but there is just so
sents." Anyway, beware o f much telephone any person
the Nobel Prize!
can take. To leave your
Take the case of Isaac apartment these days when
Bashevis Singer. He has it is so hard to find another
been long known as one is not easy but there was no
of the bigger talents of other way.
the Yiddish press, but no
People are strange.
doubt he was happy There are many who
when he first heard that would appreciate a tele-
he was to be awarded the phone call but they sel-
prize; but what happened dom get one. Take Joe
(Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.)
Gaiowitz. He has had a
hard life. He has never
won a prize in his life. If
you rang him up and said,
"Joe, I see by the papers
that you did not win the
Nobel Prize, I wish you
had," he would ap-
preciate it. But hOw many
call Joe to tell him that?
But that is beside the
point. The point here is that
the winners of the prize
have to go through quite an
ordeal and Jews face this
problem more than others.
Recently, we read in a
leading New York daily a
review of a book in which
the writer quotes a great
liberal of some 50 years
back as saying that 65 per-
cent of the Russian Jewish
immigrants to this country
are feeble-minded. Yet
strangely enough these
feeble-minded people seem
to win a greater percentage
of the Nobel Prizes than
others.
The Jewish percentage of
Nobel Prize winners is ex-
ceptional. So if you are a
Jew, you are faced more
than others with the possi-
The great danger lies in
bility that you will have to the fields of medicine, sci-
move from your apartment ence, literature, economics.
to a hotel, and maybe to find So avoid those subjects. Cul-
a new apartment.
tivate a bit of ignorance.
Some will no doubt Take up tennis, horse rac-
take a fatalistic position. ing and such things instead.
If it is "beshert," they will And above all be firm.
say, that they shall win a
The the attitude like taht
Nobel Prize, they will of General Sherman when
take it. There is no use in he was mentioned for the
fighting fate. However, Presidency, "If nominated, I
that is the wrong attitude. will not accept; if elected, I
If you approach the prob- will not serve."
lem thoughtfully and
With that kind of firm-
firmly, you can avoid the ness, you are bound to suc-
peril.
ceed.
'
New Volume Shows the Bias of Philip Roth
By DR. MILTON
STEINHARDT
In his attempted defense
in The Ghost Writer," he
"The Ghost Writer" by gets himself further
Philip Roth (Farrar, Straus enmeshed and subtly bet-
and Giroux) is clearly a re- rays his true ambivalence.
sponse to the criticism level-
Roth devised a fictional
led at Roth for his anti- plot of a young, talented
Jewish bias and "self-
writer, Nathan Zucker-
hatred."
man, who writes a story
Some of the feelings about a family quarrel
against Roth stem from his concerning an inheri-
characterization of most of tance intended for the
his unsavory characters as medical education of
Jews — in a seemingly twin boys. The will is
casual relationship — and challenged in open court
not that the unprincipled, by an unscrupulous
manipulative person hap- member of the family
pens to be Jewish.
PHILIP ROTH
who claims that "higher
There is a world of dif-
education" d6es not in- and the young Zuckerman
ference in the above ap- elude becoming doctors. took the problem to the
proaches. It is not isolated Zuckerman's father tries adored 56-year-old Jewish
instances, but the total pat- reasonable mediation in writer E.I. Lonoff who lives
tern of his writings that the quarrel, to no avail.
on a farm in Massachusetts
seem to imply "being
When the father read the with his Yankee wife.
Jewish is being banal and draft of the story he found it
It appears that Roth built
coarse."
embarrassing, and con- a straw man and then pro-
sulted a prominent Jewish ceeded to demolish him.
judge who once helped Zuc- There was no convincing
kerman get into college. evidence to withhold publi-
The secretary of the judge cation — since obviously
sent a polite reply, and ap- Jews, like other people, may
pended 10 queries for be good, bad; or indifferent.
Nathan Zuckerman to an- The author exploits this
saver before the story is irrelevant episode to show
submitted to a popular the inviolability and uni-
magazine.
versality of his literary art.
Some of the questions
In reality, literature
were crude and irrelevant, that is authentic and
truly reflects life need not
fear criticism. The con-
flict arises when the
author transmits his am-
bivalence about Jewish-
ness to the reader. A brief
example follows:
The New York Jews re-
sented the author for living
in the country in the Goyish
wilderness of birds and
trees where America began
and long ended." The impli-
cation is pure rubbish!
Zuckerman, addressing
Lonoff again, says: "I think
of you as the Jew thit
. away from some of thy;
down in New York." -To
Roth all New York Jews are
so obnoxious that one "must
get away". He seems to
attribute all vulgarities to
Jewishness, perhaps judg-
ing them by his own frail-
ties. There is no doubt Roth
left the psychiatrist's couch
much too soon.
One may critically main-
tain that Roth obtained his
recognition in non-Jewish
circles by explicit sex, por-
nography, and by walking
on the corpses of the Jewish
people whom he shoots
down with malice, satire
and ridicule.