2 Friday, November 14, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Presidential Glory and the Imperishable Legacy
of Americanism Retain Solidity as New Leaders
Prepare to Assume U.S. Administrative Powers
By Philip
Slomovitz
Presidential Glory and the American Genius Once Again Experienced in a Voter's Avalanche
Ronald Reagan was proclaimed the victor in the contest for President of the United
States while a sizable portion of the nation had not yet utilized the opportunity to express
itself. Many hundreds of voting booths were still open, with long lineups of citizens
awaiting the opportunity to express their preference. It was the result of conjecture that
makes science the dominant power.
In the process, the genius of America was in evidence again. In a matter of minutes
the nation was being prepared for a change of administrators. It was accomplished by the
ballot. It is always peaceful. It registers the highest rank in civilization. It does not mock
humanism and it elevates the principles of decency and justice that make democracy
workable for citizens who have self-respect and therefore respect their fellow humans.
That's how it works in a civilized society — the ballot being more powerful than the
bullet. Therefore, President-Elect Ronald Reagan is able to prepare for his serious duties
to commence next Jan. 20 with the cooperation of the loser who knows that his con-
stituents are the rulers in choosing leadership.
Therefore, President-Elect Reagan will arrive on the scene of action with the respect
of the people of this nation for the platform and policies,for which he will seek the backing
of a Congress with a new physiognomy.
* *
*
The genius of America is as much in the
loser as in the winner. President Jimmy Carter,
conversing with supporters who had earlier
heard him deliver a message conceding defeat,
expressed the hope that he still has time — still
being President for another two-and-a-half
months — to attain his goal for peace in the
Middle East. Approach to it, the Camp David
talks, was his major achievement. He is not
abandoning it. It is to his lasting credit and
every person of good will, all who strive for
peace, will always be grateful to him for his role
as a peacemaker.
Therefore, the continuing and indelible sig-
nificance of a handshake portrayed in the ac-
companying historic photograph taken on
March 29, 1979, at the White House. The triple
handshake, President Carter flanked by
Anwar Sadat and Menahem Begin, is the glori-
UNESCO as a Tool for Bigots:
The Challenge to Free Press
Whatever benefits may be derived from UNESCO, a
major international agency created by the United Nations,
is being undermined by the evil forces that are being nur- ,
tured by the Third World.
Encouragement given Arafat in his 80-minute address
to UNESCO at the meeting in Belgrade added fuel to the
inferno of destruction and the massing of international
forces aiming for Israel's destruction.
What is shocking in that display of hatred is that the
Soviet and Arab blocs were backed by the European -com-
munities, only the United States joining Israel in refusing
to participate in such sessions.
Not to be ignored in the danger emanating from such
bestially-controlled sessions is the threat to freedom of
expression, the attempt to introduce control of the press
and the imposition of censorship of news on an interna-
tional basis.
It has become apparent, at the Belgrade sessions of
UNESCO, that the Third World under Soviet leadership
was defeating Western efforts to prevent allocation of funds
for improvement of PLO propaganda campaigns on a
worldwide basis. The U.S. has some help from European
countries in striving to protect freedom of the press against
such tactics, but the menace has become damaging. Per-
haps only refusal by the free nations to finance this sinking
medievalism can possibly prevent a continuing trend in the
direction of a censorship destroying journalistic freedom.
This threat is so serious that the New York Times
warned of its effects in an editorial, "UNESCO as Censor:"
The undemocratic governments that pine for
order in what their people read, hear and think
have won yet another "compromise" to advance
the cause of censorship. So it needs to be said
again, and less temperately than before, that no
American negotiator speaks in these matters for
the free press of the United States. Let there be no
doubt in the United Nations Educational, Scien-
tific and Cultural Organization, which aims to be-
come the arbiter of "responsible" communica-
tion, that American journalism values its freedom
from official scrutiny and control more than it
values UNESCO, or even the United Nations.
The reports from Belgrade, where UNESCO's
150 nations have been meeting for weeks, suggest
that democratic delegates have been outmaneu-
vered again. A majority of UN nations, pleading
poverty, weakness and dependence on the media
of the industrial West, is moving UNESCO to de-
fine the meaning of "balance" in international
news and to create a bureaucracy to help impose
it.
The project has been stoutly resisted only by
Americans, Britons and West Germans. Mean-
while,UNESCO's bureaucracy has become eager
ous mark of peace-making for which the foreigners won the Nobel Peace Prize, President
Carter surely meriting a like role.
What a wonderful page in American and world history, in the annals of Israel and
Egypt, is accredited to Jimmy Carter!
*
Last week's sensational result at the polls draws attention to two serious matters:
the defeat of a number of very liberal U.S. Senators and the injection of religious
pressures into American political concerns.
The defeated liberal Senators were ousted by small margins of the voters. In some
instances they were by a single percentage point. This is hardly comforting. It's sadden-
ing to know that men who had made their mark in the U.S. legislative ranks have bee*
ordered out of office. They will be remembered with gratitude.
Perhaps there is comfort in the knowledge, taught by the experiences of changin k,-
times, that replacements may prove as liberal as the outcasts. Not all Republicans are
ultra-conservative. Not all conservatives are demoniacal. Many a conservative, elected
to office, responds responsibly to duty and therefore does not abuse privilege.
Perhaps this applies also to the so-called Moral Majority and what has been judged as
a threat to the American Separation principle. There are many who advocate union of
church and state. There are some who would
`k.
abandon the Separation ideal. Even President-
ial candidates have advocated introduction of
prayer sessions in the public schools. There are
traditions which cannot be traversed. There is
the legacy from Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison not to be abandoned.
Therefore, there must be a sense of faith
never to lose hope, to hold fast to the American
ideal, to keep believing that the sense of justice,
of fair play, of respect for religious feelings by
granting to all the privilege of religious liber-
ties, will survive — always!
In this spirit, the new era, under a new
President should be viewed as presaging the
never-to-be-abandoned respect for true
Americanism. This is the continuity of basic
and imperishable American ideals with which
is welcomed the new heads of this government,
Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
to manage the communications "order." What
fun: to sit on license boards that certify journalists
with "safe-conduct" passes and require them, by
george, to be "balanced" in political reporting,
clearly opposed to racism and war, and "fair" to
national liberation movements like the PLO.
These are the stated goals of the thought-
controlers. And there are Western diplomats who
still want to humor them, perhaps to avoid con-
flict over technical issues like international radio
frequencies. After UNESCO's meeting two years
ago, some argued that the democracies had clev-
erly managed to obfuscate. Now, some say, the
dread document has been further amended, and
delayed for another two years.
But in return for such triumphs, UNESCO has
been empowered to undertake costly studies of
how best to "protect" journalists, and how to go
about defining their ethics and responsibilities. It
was also agreed, over Western protests, to hold a
conference in 1983 to evaluate the Western
media's performance—by Soviet and Third World
political standards. And it was decided that UN-
ESCO needs a special office to assist the prop-
aganda efforts of liberation movements.
Nations that respect freedom of communication
do not need any such declarations or protection.
Nor is any definition of press obligations needed
by those Communist and Third World regimes
that routinely censor their own media and limit all
foreign inquiry. Some of them lead this campaign
merely to legitimize the suppression they prac-
tice. Some aim merely to exploit the understand-
able resentments of poor societies for their own
political ends.
Western governments have tried to subvert the
campaign by recognizing the weakness of com-
munications in the developing nations. They have
agreed to help UNESCO greatly expand its tech-
nical and educational assistance. There is indeed
much that mature nations can do to help poor
societies inform the world of their needs and pro-
gress, and inform their own people more effec-
tively.
But all that is a far cry from creating an interna-
tional system of press supervision which private
American media would not accept even from their
own government. The motives of those who
clamor the loudest for information order should
be plain to all. There is simply no way to
"negotiate" or "compromise" with them on the
meaning of free speech.
Wherever there is danger to a free world from the
influence exerted numerically by Third World representa-
tives, there is evidence that the petrol dollars, that the
power possessed by oil rich nations, emerges as a combined
danger to every principle of democratic government and
peoplehood.
The threat is so serious that the United States stands
alone in UNESCO, as this government did on many other
occasions in its experience with the United Nations. The
submission of what has been misnamed as the free world is
a matter for great concern.
With the situation in the Middle East on a continuing
militarized basis, with war threats constantly repeated, the
battle for decency is a difficult one. It is becoming increas-
ingly more obligatory to keep this nation fully informed on
developments, for an understanding of the isolation of this
nation in a world enmeshed in panic resulting from a crav-
ing for oil. These are not easy times for a free government in
the den of panic-stricken nations.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to supply
most of the funds for the operation of UNESCO and other
UN agencies that are controlled by the bigotries of hate-
inspired nations. Perhaps a refusal to finance the bigoted in
the form of financing UN monitored agencies will contrib-
ute towards a reduction of the prejudices and threats to
democratic principles.
Dr. Emanuel Neumann: His Name
Perpetuated Among the Great
in Creative Zionist History
Emanuel Neumann was one of the giants in the move-
ment for the redemption of Israel. He was in a class with Dr.
Abba Hillel Silver, who was among his closest associates in
the Zionist Organization of America, in the emergencies
that confronted the Jewish people in the battle for Israel'.
statehood during the most critical periods in Jewish h
tory.
He began as a leader in the Young Judea ranks and in
the educational tasks for Zionism, and in the latter capacity
he was closely associated with Henrietta Szold, who was
the founder of Hadassah, when she was educational direc-
tor of the ZOA. Dr. Neumann served as her secretary in
these early efforts to enlighten American Jewry to the
needs for building the Jewish National Home in Palestine.
Therefore, the recognition that was given him to be
among the Jewish witnesses to testify before UNSCOP —
the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine —
when it acted in support of the proposal for Palestine's
partition into Jewish and Arab states.
Dr. Neumann, who was noted for oratory as well as his
analytical essays on Zionism, was highly regarded as a
scholar as well as leader. He befriended many Christian
leaders in support of Zionism and he was fearless in his
approaches to the mighty in defining the idealism of the
Zionist cause.
His name will be recorded indelibly in Jewish history.