2 friday, Febnaty 1, 1980

THE DETROIT pot NEWS

Purely Commentary

By Philip
Slomovitz

The Nation Is Tested With the Challenge to Exercise Unity
in Time of Crisis ... Christians Should Lead in Refuting
Anti-Israel Bias ... McGovern's Message of Cheer from Israel

Will Not Be Conquered
A Nation With a Common Objective
have served his fellow citizens with greater honor than the Nobel Prize winning

Sakharov. He has the respect and admiration of the free peoples of the world and a boycott
of the Olympics scheduled for Moscow must be interpreted as a condemnation of the
persecutions of dissidents in whose ranks Sakharov is a leader of great stature.
Israel's experiences always served as lessons for the statesmen of the world. There is
an acknowledged guideline in human affairs, admonishing that when there is persecu-
of Jews, Christians should beware. They are usually next in line. This is true in
tion
relation to Israel, the USSR and the tyrants in the Middle East. They begin by hounding
Jews and Israel, and other faiths and nations come next.
The President had a right to boast about the peace between Egypt and Israel. He
spoke of it as an achievement in his State of the Union address and he has earned
applause for it.
Even if legislated into action as proposed by President Carter, in spite of its unpopu-
demonstration of
larity, perhaps registration of American youth will be merely another
unity. It need not point to ultra-militarism. It must not be anticipated as an approach to
war. In a harmless fashion it can add to the state of unity of the American people.
Indeed, there is a unity, even if it does not indicate a resort to incumbents capitaliz-
ing politically on the issues.
Given the alarming developments in Iran and
plishments of earlier cultural and religious
Afghanistan, along with the instability that char-
movements.
acterizes much of the Middle East, it is imperative
I completed my day with Mayor Kollek more
that Israel remain a strong and dependable ally of
convinced than ever that Jerusalem must remain
the United States. Indeed, Israel is a key factor in
a unified city under Israeli administration. I hope
our security in that part of the globe. Thus we
that the negotiations lead to this outcome. It is
must be prepared to increase our military and
important that Christians, Moslems, Jews and
economic assistance to this vitally important ally.
other religious groups all have full access to their
This is a very heartening sentiment from a most dis-
holy places. This assurance is fully recognized by
legislator, especially in view of his frequent
tinguished
the Israelis, who have given loving care to the
criticisms
of the Israeli leaders.
religious shrines of all faiths in Jerusalem.
It will be recalled that when he was •
The remaining highlights of my visit to Israel
the Democratic candidate for Pres-
were two delightful and stimulating dinners given
ident he was suspect on the subject
by Mr. and Mrs. Zalman Shovel at their home in
in some quarters. A few weeks before
Tel Aviv and by Mr. Hanan Bar-On at the Plaza
the 1972 election in which he was
Hotel in Jerusalem. Mr. Shovel is a young, highly
drastically defeated by Richard Nixon,
articulate member of the Likud Party. Henan
a prominent Israeli scientist, Dr.
Bar-On, now the deputy director-general of the
David Erlich, who was here to address
Israeli Foreign Ministry, is a friend whom I came
the Detroit Technion Society, said if he
to know when he was with the Israeli Embassy in
were an American he could not sup-
Washington. He is one of the forest and wisest men
port Mc Govern. He was in The Jewish
in Israel.
News office when he made that r,
McGOVERN
mark, and the editor asked for his rea-
I came away from this enjoyable, but all too
soning. "Because if elected, we fear he would name Senator
brief, visit to Israel with refreshed faith in the
William Fullbright as Secretary of State." The editor said
important role which this small but amazingly
he would confront McGovern that night, when he was
dynamic nation plays in the life of the world. The
scheduled to meet with him at a Democratic dinner, with
seizure of the American embassy and our dip-
this suspicion and fear. He did and McGovern told this
lomatic personnel in Iran has given us as Ameri-
writer he could never appoint an anti-Israeli to any post in
cans a new appreciation of the anger and fear
his cabinet.
which Israel has long experienced from ter-
Senator McGovern proves in his latest observations
rorists. It is regrettable that we have to live
how more intimate contacts with Israelis and thorough
through a personal tragedy of this kind to com-
study
of existing conditions can lead to greater friendships
prehend some of the anguish which Israelis have
for the embattled Israel in her search for friends and recog-
experienced at the hands of terrorists over the
nition of her rights in the Middle East and in the society of
years. And to understand why the Israelis quite
nations of the world. What the Democratic leader now
properly do not talk to the PLO and why we
asserts is a blessing for Israel and for the peace aims in that
should not do so either. To do otherwise would
area.
confer legitimacy, on their terrorist activities.

On major issues, this nation is united. This became obvious in the day after the State
of the Union address to Congress and the American people by President Carter.
This nation never submitted to tyranny. This is really the basic point in the many
challenges that are being hurled at the United States. Even the relatively non-
progressive Iran dares to irritate the American people. Only by resorting to the
medievalism which marks the inhumanities with which hostages have already been held
for nearly 100 days can a problem be created for a great nation that will not resort to
warfare to end the bestialities.
Added to the Iranian horror, the Russian Bear taunts the U.S. How else are the
Kremlin maneuvers to be interpreted?
These add up to conditions which in less progressive days would have meant war.
There probably will be an unbalanced peace for many years to come. But the cold war is,
in itself, a state of war, and because of it the policies of the present U.S. Administration
demand the people's support and unity.
In the main, the President has attained this unity. He is backed on the decision to
stay out of Russia for the Olympics. This is a rebuke that a sensitive nation cannot ignore.
It comes at a time when one of the most brilliant of the USSR scientists, Andrei Sakharov,
has been sent into a virtual prison, with his wife, on charges of treason:No man could

Christians Should Condemn
National Church Group
for Its Vile Anti-Israel Kit

An anti-Israel kit issued by the National Council of
Churches of Christ is so vile, so biased in its anti-Jewish
emphasis on anti-Israelism, that it elicits surprise that it is
treated with kid gloves.
Rabbis and associates of the Bnai Brith Anti-
Defamation League have condemned the prejudicial ac-
tion. Why wasn't it exposed for its bias by Christians? The
situation is shameful and true Christians must be blushing
over the bigotries that are thus permitted to invade their
churches.

Justice William 0. Douglas
as Advocate of Just Causes

A grateful nation
does not forget the gifts
made to posterity by its
progressive citizens. A
record such as was
written into Ameridan
History by the late
Supreme Court Justice
William 0. Douglas
remains imperishable.
He was a champion of
justice. As such it was
natural for him to
share, in his earlier
years, a devotion to the
dream for a Zion Re-
built, when he em-
braced the Zionist ideal
and propagated the
cause. He had his an-
tagonists, and this is
what makes his longev-
ity as a member of the
highest court in the
JUSTICE DOUGLAS
land so memorable.
He never bowed to pressures and would not submit to
those who wanted to suppress his liberalism. Therefore, he
withstood the attempt by Gerald Ford, before he became
President, as a member of the U.S. House of Representa-
tives, to impeach him. The judiciary committee defeated
the Ford resolution. That move may have been the most
inglorious in the career of the then Michigan Congressman.
Justice Douglas served on the Supreme Court for 36
years, longer than any other justice in the high court's
history. He dissented 500 times. He wrote a chapter in
courage and fearlessness, and will always be remembered
for it.

George McGovern Observes
Israel's Highest Qualities

U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota had
been to Israel on several occasions and his observations
often occasioned criticism. His last trip, a month ago, seems
to have sparked increased admiration for the Israelis and
their policies.
He shares with this editor a letter he had written to his
friends in which he reports on a 90-minute meeeting with
Prime Minister Menahem Begin, talks with other Israeli
leaders, visits with several citizens of Israel. He sum-
marizes his impressions with an interesting comment:
I last toured Jerusalem with Mayor Kollek in
April of 1975. Since then, the excavations around
the wall and the painstaking restoration of other
parts of the city represent a marvelous devotion
to history and culture. I see no basis at all for the
criticism directed at these carefully developed
excavations and restorations. They are being car-
ried out with reverence and care for the accom-

Study of Christian Arabs 'Disappointing'

By PROF. CARL
HERMANN VOSS

(Editor's note: Clergy-
man Voss was a founder
of the American Chris-
tian Palestine Committee
in 1942 and its first execu-
tive director. He is ecu-
menical scholar in resi-
dence in Jerusalem, Ox-
ford and Jacksonville,
Fla. on behalf of the Na-
tional Conference of
Christians and Jews and
is an honorary fellow of
the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem.)
"Christians in the Arab
East: A Political Study" by
Robert Brenton Betts (John
Knox Press), is a disap-
pointing book.
He gives promise of both a
scholarly exposition and an
incisive analysis of the role
Christians have played in
centuries past and continue
to play in the Arab lands;
but after a brilliant start in
the first 40 pages, he begins
a slow and tedious 74-page
descent in his presentation
of data about 12 different
Christian denominations

(Greek Orthodox, Greek
Catholic, Syrian Orthodox
(Jacobite), Syrian Catholic,
Maronite, Copt, Coptic
Catholic, Nestorian, Chal-
daean Catholic, Armenians,
and Latin and Protestant)
in nine separate areas of the
Mediterranean region,
some of his statistics coming
from files 20 and 30 years
old and from dubious
sources.
In the following 118
pages, the remaining half of
his text, he loses perspective
and becomes an Arab
apologist, allowing himself
to be entangled in the in-
tricacies of intra-Arab strife
and the tottering structures
of Arab governments.
The final 10 pages on
"Evaluation and Future
Assessment" are the nadir,
especially in a seemingly
interminable sentence of 24
lines where he lists at ran-
dom many "new ramifica-
tions of an internal reawak-
ening and a new-found in-
dependence which are
rapidly changing the nar-
row traditionalism that

once marked Arab Chris-
tian communities," and
then in a final paragraph
makes the incredible asser-
tion:
"For Israel itself, a suc-
cessful Christian-Muslim
experience makes Leba-
non the most dangerous
of all enemies to Zionist
survival, for it is a living
example of the kind of
society the Palestinians
have lately advocated in ,
place of the narrowly
nationalistic and ethni-
cally based state that is
Israel today."
Had Betts maintained the
high level of his first chap-
ter, the book might have

PROF. VOSS

enduring value; but he
failed to do so. The appendix
of statistical tables, some of
them from the 1950s, the 40
pages of meticulously
documented but woefully
outdated material, and the
26 page unannotated, un-

-

evaluated bibliography
merely take up valuable
space (almost one-fourth of
the book) and do not fulfill
the purpose he outlines in

his introduction:
". . . This study is devoted
(to) the hope of contributing
to a greater Western under-
standing of the present-day
Middle East, the very land
in which Western culture
and values are so deeply
rooted."
Some of Betts' work is
admirable but much more is
tendentious. His book is
given no added lustre by the
unctuous and pointless
preface by Dean Francis P.
of
Sayre, Jr. (grandson
Woodrow Wilson and dean
of the Cathedral in Wash-
ington, D.C.), whose con-
tempt for Israel and Israelis
is well-known.