2 Friday, July 4, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Menahem Begin as the Available Scapegoat in an
Era of Hatred When Cartoonists Follow the Stuermer
Line and World Jewry Panics Amid Their Many Fears
By Philip
Slomovitz
Those Proclaiming Genocide in Detroit or Jerusalem Should Be Denied Such 'Freedoms'
Combining their hatreds and their threats to resort to violence and to condone mass
murders of Jews, Catholics and blacks, the Nazi elements in this country and the Ku
Khix. Klan are not only asking for the right to march and to propagate their intentions.
They also have the freedom to use the mails without restrictions, something they are
proving in the material they are circulating to incite to riots.
Should they be granted the right to advocate their views and to parade in Nazi
uniforms?
There is no defense for the advocates of genocide.
This applies also to a damaging situation that has arisen in Israel where students are
pursuing PLO tactics in universities.
Hatred Has Its Scapegoat
and Begin Is Available
It's piling up — the hatred for Menahem Begin. He is
caricatured as if he were a Jew in Berlin in the 1930s. He is
portrayed as a villain. He is described as the fellow who
causes trouble for Israel.
How else can cartoonists and others in the media who
have reduced themselves to maligning a foreign head of
state inspire hatred for the state he represents? Only by
resorting to a scapegoat, and Begin serves that purpose
well. If they can malign the prime minister, inter alia the
country will take the rap.
There must be an insistence on the facts and a rejection
of innuendoes. Analysts in the main would like to be objec-
tive.
Yet, when Time magazine resorted to the phrase "Be-
gin rhymes with Faigin . ." New Republic Editor Martin
Peretz modified his dislike for Begin: then it became an
attack on Begin as One of the People.
If it's unfair to describe it as in the first paragraph
herein, why do it: Because some of the recent cartoons have
been so vile that one of them was condemned in a conven-
tion resolution by the American Jewish Press Association
and another was the cause for expressions of outrage by
members of Congress.
Why are many Jews submitting to the campaign of
vilification and hatred for Begin? That's easy to under-
stand: fear grips people so violently at times that they
forget their obligations and instead of defending the target
of anti-Semites they inadvertently become the tools of the
haters.
Not-to-be-Envied Menahem Begin: he has the Arabs to
contend with, he must deal with Anwar Sadat who, fortu-
nately, condemns the PLO but keeps mouthing concessions
to the anti-Israeli elements; he has Jews in the Diaspora to
deal with when appeasement is difficult, besides the
enemies in the ranks of the opposition. But he is not that
unfortunate an individual: he also serves a purpose: he is
the scapegoat for the haters. That's why, when the story of
current experiences is written, in the Nineties, Menahem
Begin will be the best available subject for research into
Man's Search for a Scapegoat. He fills that need admirably
— for caricaturists, who use the Stuermer as a guide, Jews
who panic when cartoonists yield to the hate instinct, Is-
raelis for who a party line is so important they nourish the
hatred for the opposition. Watch for such articles in the
Nineties: they will be very revealing.
Futility of Appeals Like
Abba Eban's to King Hussein
.
What a pity that appeals for cooperation in peace ef-
forts to King Hussein of Jordan fall on deaf ears!
In a matter of several hours, the war threats on the
so-called West Bank, in Samaria and Judea, could end with
assurances of immense benefits to all. But Hussein appar-
ently yields to the pressures that come from PLO and the
enemies of Israel in all Arab countries, excluding Egypt
where negotiations for a continuing peace go on and on.
Attempts to invade Israel for terrorist purposes by
PLO gangs, in recent weeks, were accompanied by PLO
threats that Jordan will again be made a base for action
against Israel.
Apparently King Hussein was impelled by talks with
President Carter to pledge that terrorists would not operate
against Israel from his territory. But the helplessness of the
Jordinian king on that score has been established and what
he promised can be judged as loose talk.
Meanwhile, in a New York Times Op-Ed Page article,
"The Jordanian Connection," former Israel Foreign Minis-
ter Abba Eban made proposals for cooperation between the
.two nations, stating:
King Hussein of Jordan has expressed reluc-
tance to join the peace process either now or in the
event of Labor's policy becoming operative. The
Jordanian attitude was the original source of the
crisis and is now the main cause of the deadlock.
But for King Hussein's tragic decision to make
war against Israel in June 1967, there would not
be an Israeli military or civil administration in the
West Bank today. It seems eccentric for a states-
man to kindle a blaze and then refuse to help
extinguish it 13 years later. So much for the past.
The present reality is that there is no serious
Prime Minister Menahem Begin may initiate legislation to expel university stu-
dents who support the PLO. Begin said: "Under no circumstances can I accept that
students go around our campuses with slogans proclaiming, 'My sole representative is
the PLO.' "
How else can those who wish to act against violence assert themselves other than by
denying the right to demonstrate in American cities by Nazis and KKK and students
advocating Israel's destruction in Israeli universities?
The two issues are akin. Those advocating genocide should be denied the freedom to
attain their goals.
segment of opinion in Israel that would relinquish
territory close to our homes and lives in favor of a
virulent, hate-ridden Palestine Liberation Organ-
ization state. But there are very many who would
make such a renunciation in favor of a
Jordanian-Palestinian federation. I personally
have suggested a variant under which Israel,
Jordan and the areas that Israel would give up in
the West Bank and Gaza in a peace settlement
would form a community on the European Eco-
nomic Community model, combining political
separation with a large measure of integration
and mutual accessibility. If Jordan remains
primly aloof from all these prospects, ignoring the
fact that all the Palestinians east and west of the
Jordan are its citizens, it will become virtually
responsible for perpetuating the Israeli adminis-
tration of the territories.
The fact that Jordan and previous Labor ad-
ministrations in Israel were unable to reach
agreements is irrelevant. Anwar el-Sadat's initia-
tive has had transforming efforts everywhere, in-
cluding even Saudi Arabia. The present Labor
leadership is not tied to all its previous formula-
tions. Jordan has very good cause to join the
trend toward humility and innovation, and its
leader has a chance to help redeem old griefs by
new visions.
Unfortunately, tragically! — all appeals to King
Hussein fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it is the fear of
assassination that influences the monarch more than
anything else. Fortunately, Egypt's President Anwar
Sadat does not submit to such threats. Will time pro-
vide relief from tensions and a solution to the sicknes-
ses of the Middle East?
When Arabs Welcomed
Israel's Presence and a Current
Fraternal Attitude
Arab attitudes towards Israel and the Jewish people
were not always bitter. There was a time when Arabs
welcomed statehood and were cordial to the Zionist ideol-
ogy.
Proof is contained in a clipping from the now defunct
Detroit Jewish Chronicle (incorporated in The Detroit
Jewish News) of Aug. 15, 1930.
How interesting that the clipping of what was an
eight-column paper then edited by this columnist should
have been saved by a concerned reader. The clipped page
from the 1930 paper was shared with us by our long-time
reader I. Kotlier of Washington, Mich.
The 50-year-old story reads:
CAIRO — (JTA) — Strong objections against
the participation of Egyptians in the anti-Jewish
propaganda in Palestine is voiced by Russein
Mahmud, prominent Egyptian author, in a letter
to the El Mokkattam. He opposed the Palestine.
Arab movement and the participation in it of
Egyptians because he says the Egyptians are not
Arabs.
Mahmud pointed out that "the Jewish people
are suffering and persecuted in various countries
and must be protected by us because they are
near us in language. They are of our family." Re-
garding the Wailing Wall Mahmud declared it
was not necessary for Egyptians to participate in
the Wailing Wall dispute because the Wall is part
of the Temple of Solomon which belonged to the
Jews."
A related story about an Egyptian student who found
cordiality and reception at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem appeared in the New York Times a few days ago.
It is an item about Kamal Abdel-Malek who, upon reading
the autobiography of Golda Meir in 1975, wrote to her in
1977, after Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem.
This Egyptian student landed at the Hebrew Univer-
sity in 1979 and the NYTimes story states that he led an
active social life in Jerusalem and was "pleasantly sur-
prised by his year-long experience in Israel." He said: "The
amount of individual freedom on a social level is much more
here. For example, the amount of the two opposite sexes
walking in the street and freely touching each other." He is
quoted saying that "We Egyptians are slow sometimes, like
the Nile," commenting on the four-year interval between
his reading of the Golda Meir book and his arrival in Israel.
He came to Jerusalem eight months before the border be-
tween the two countries was officially opened.
The NYTimes story is sufficiently fascinating to justify
lengthier quotation. It explains under the Jerusalem
dateline of June 17:
When Golda Meir's autobiography was pub-
lished in 1975, Kamal Abdel-Malek, then an Egy--
tian student working in Greece, bought a coy
Two years later, a week after President An'
el-Sadat's trip to Israel, Mr. Abdel-Malek wrote to
the former Prime minister to ask her three ques-
dons:
Could he translate her book into Arabic?
Could he study at "Jerusalem University?"
Was it true that President Sadat kissed her
when he arrived in Israel in November 1977?
"I have historical proof that President did not
kiss Mrs. Meir," Mr. Abdel-Malek said, adding
that Mrs. Meir informed him of this in her letter.
She also told him that translation rights were
owned by the publisher and that she would do
everything possible to get him into Hebrew Uni-
versity, in Jerusalem. And she did.
"I came here cold-bloodedly, not by chance and
not just for an affair but a meaningful relation-
ship," said Mr. Abdel-Malek, who is 27 years old
and a Christian. He added that he wanted to "get
mature" and to "discard stereotypes."
As the first Egyptian citizen to apply to study in
Israel, he noted, his parents worried about how
their friends would react to his decision. But he
stressed that they were liberal-minded and did
not raise obstacles.
Mr. Abdel-Malek, the son of a shoemaker in
Alexandria, said that he had been impressed by
the freedom in the Israeli press, classrooms and
social scene.
"There is a discernible attempt to be objective,"
he said of the Israeli press, although his lack of
Hebrew permits him to read only the English-
language Jerusalem Post. Though he
encountered some prejudices in the press and
among his teachers, he said he was pleased to find
that some teachers at least tried to present both
sides.
"There's no magic formula," he said. But he
cautioned against the attitude typified, he said by
his teacher — that we might as well go to the
other extreme." The danger, he went on, is the
suceptibility of the students" to biased teaching.
He made a practice of speaking out in class so
others, he hopes can get a balanced picture.
Although admitted to Hebrew University in
June 1978 for its one-year program for foreign
students, he put off coming to Israel for a year
because of lack of money, despite a fellowship
offered by the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew
University while he was studying English at Con-
cordia University in Montreal.
One of the ways he earned enough money to
come to Israel, Mr. Abdel-Malek said, was by
working for an Arabic translation company used
by Saudi Arabia, a country that has no relations
with Israel and officially bars entry to Jews. The
irony is not lost on Mr. Abdel-Malek, who re-
marked, "I came to Israel by Saudi money, and
they wouldn't have given it to me had they
known."
The Israelis have welcomed him warmly.
"People are very friendly to me fOr the pure far '
that I am an Egyptian," he said.
A volunteer for the Egyptian Army for a short
stint in 1972 before deferring his army service
until after completing college, he was at the Sur --
Canal in 1972. At that time, he added, he wou.
never have considered studying in the country
whose soldiers stood on the other side of the
canal.
These are human interest items. What an Egyptian
can accomplish in Israel — an Israeli could emulate it on
the shores of the Nile — could be achieved by Arabs from
other lands.
If hatred could be erased from many hearts, a good
society could be created for all in the entire Middle East.
The trouble is that only the most concerned for peace will
read this, and those who foster malice cannot be appeased.