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.