11111:1111111111111•111111111111 2 Friday, February 20, 1981 ,axwia THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Tale of Horror and Hate Depicted on '60 Minutes' Program Invites the Recognition of the Positive and Friendly Attitudes That Bind Arabs and Jews By Philip Slomovitz `60 Minutes' Hate Tale and the Negating Examples Emphasizing Two Nations' Amity "60 Minutes" story about Islam in Israel is distressing. It recapitulates hate. It defies the Jewish right to nationhood. It can inspire fear among Israelis and doubts in the ranks of Israel's friends and supporters. - It does even more: it points to the difficulty of creating friendship and cooperation and of solidifying kinship. The story admits that Israel grants many benefits of citizenship to the Arabs. The complaint is that they are not equalto the benefits enjoyed by the Israelis who neighbor on their villages. These are matters that are correctible, if the counterargument truly is that the Arab tax payments do not justify granting the services expected. There is much more to the story. When a young Arab is asked whether he aspires with his fellow Israeli-Arab citizens to see the "Jewish Zionist state of Israel" disappear his answer is "Yes." That is the root of the serious problem. Will it be possible to reach any Arab group with an admission of Israel's right to a national home and to the people's heritage? A kindred nation that has 22 states is denying breathing space to the Jews who have acquired an end to homelessness. Can this antagonism be deflated, if not totally overcome? What the young Arab's "Yes" to Israel disappearance meant was to confirm the fear that there is a Fifth Column in Israel. Israel's former chief- of police, Shmuel Toledano, deflated such fears with figures, stating that of the 500,000 Arabs in Israel only 1,200 were allied with the terrorists in the 33-year history of Israel. It is poor consolation. Even a single Arab terrorist is a menace — an unacceptable threat to innocent lives, Jews, Christians and Arabs. The chief problem is whether Arabs and Jews can live together, and the civilized approach is to the positive. Why shouldn't people be able to live in peace? Why is Anwar Sadat the only Arab leader whose amicable relations with Israel have elevated him to glorious human position as an advocate and pursuer of peace? Why is he the only Arab ruler who accepts the reality of Israel's existence? Aren't all the others bluffing when, as in the instance of King Hussein of Jordan there is a half-hearted mention of Israel uttered as a condition to Israel's submission to impossible Arab-PLO-dominated demands? Yet, there is proof to the contrary. Don McEvoy, reporting for the National Confer- ence of Christians and Jews, relates in the accompanying essay how Jews and Arabs live together, in amity, cooperatively. This is a piece worth reading, studying — accepting it as exemplary of what can and should be encouraged. Yet the sponsors of the 60 Minutes program have chosen to emphasize the destruct- ive! The McEvoy story is not the only one of its kind as proof of the available positive. In its Feb. 12 issue, the New York Times published a report from Kfar Qara, Israel, by David Shipler, its correspondent in Israel, who described, as the headline states, how "Jews and Arabs Are Erasing Stereotypes in Israel." Here is a portion of Shipler's Qara story: For more than half-a-century, the Arab village of Kfar Qara, 22 miles south southeast of Haifa, has existed four miles from the Jewish village of Pardes Channa, but aside from some contact in the marketplace of goods and jobs, the two communities have lived apart. Two years ago a few idealistic young men and women, most of them American Jews, learned to speak Arabic and took up residence in Kfar Qara and another Arab village, Tamra, to try to break down some of the barriers. The Interns for Peace, as they call themselves, have been working under a 35-year-old rabbi, Bruce Cohen, from New Haven, Conn., and Mr. Igbaria, an Israeli Arab from Galilee, who is in the program's deputy direc- tor. They have organized social visits by Arab and Jewish couples to each other's villages and have brought teen-age dropouts together for movies, hikes, camping trips and home visits. Gershon Baskin, a 25-year-old intern from Smithtown, L.I., said: "Both Jews and Arabs are interested in creating better relations between the two groups, but both sides have the perception that the other isn't. "Jewish stereotypes of Arabs are generally that Arabs are closed, that Arabs are dirty, that Arabs are stupid, that Arabs are all anti-Israel. He said Arab stereotypes of Jews were that the Jews did not care at all about Arabs and that they "would really prefer, if they had an opportunity, to throw them out of Israel." When Baskin talked to a group of ninth graders recently about a joint . program with Arab youngsters, their reply was: "We're interested, and we're willing to try. But you should know that we're scared." Esther Lafontaine, the lone- Israeli Jew among the eight original interns, recalled that when she accompanied her American-born husband, David, into Tamra, she "felt Arabs were very dirty, very bad and very dangerous." "I was afraid that men would shoot me in the street, or rape me," she went on. "The first day we came to the village I couldn't sleep. All night I was shaking. Now I'm comfortable, with open doors." Mrs. Lafontaine's parents came to Israel from Libya; their anti-Arab attitudes were so strong that at first she did not tell them she was living in an Arab village. But gradually her parents' attitudes have softened, her hus- band said, so that now her mother comes to visit, to cook and sing songs with the Arab women. Arab reactions have been mixed. "They say sometimes you are traitors," explained Nawaf Masaiha, a prominent village resident who is on the executive board of the Israeli trade union federation. "The atmosphere here, because of the Communist Party and because of the extreme right of the Jews, creates a very difficult situa- tion for us, people who believe in relations with Jews." "People who pat themselves on the back and call themselves Zionists are not giving enough thought to the future," said Michael Chyet if Los Angeles, part of a new team of interns now in training. "By antagonizing the Arabs they're endangering the future," he said. "If this country is going to have a future the gap has to become smaller." How different the Shipler and McEvoy stories from the 60 Minutes tale! Why was the most damaging selected for television to prejudice the American people? Will the other side be told by the responsible in the media? What 60 Minutes portrayed must be taken seriously. Israel is not committing suicide, but she will not, must not, as her services for all citizens, including Arabs, already prove, ever abandon a policy of humanism. The supporters of Israel must be aware of the realities. Israel is a sovereign state and has no intention of perishing. Her supporters must never succumb to the danger im- planted in a story that was related by the popular television program. There is another side to the problem. It is related here in two forms by Christians. These must be made the guidelines for hopes and action, with Arabs hopefully joining Israelis and Jews everywhere in the aspirations for peace, harmony and mutual cooperation c ARAB AND JEW TOGETHER an Jews and Arabs live together in peace and friend ship? It is being done at Neve Shaldm (Oasis of Peace), a small settlement on the West Bank some twenty miles northwest of Jerusalem. The community, founded on a barren rocky hillside in 1973, is com- prised of four Jewish families, two Arab families, and a Roman Catholic citizen of Israel and his wife who is an Israeli Jew. They have dedicated their settlement as an educational center to build a bridge between Israel and her Arab neighbors. The original settlers, acting on their own with no governmental approval or permit, put up makeshift housing on the hill with no water nor trees for shade. A huge packing case that had brought the belongings of an American immigrant to Israel was the first_ iving space. The initial reactions to this unusual community were suspicion and hostility, exhibited by both Arabs and Jews. But gradually relationships were developed and "days that began in fear ended with the exchange of addresses and mutual visits." Today; fifteen Jewish and fifteen Arab schools send classes to meet together at Neve Shalom. The schools are paired and each pair visits the center five times each year. Those days are spent learning to know one another and breaking down the stereotypes which create animosity and mistrust. The area provides sparse oppor- tunity for financial development so most of the commune members ,work outside. The two Arab men, for ex- ample, are teachers at a nearby school in the West Bank town of Ramle. The settlement owns about 100 sheep and also farms five acres of garlic. They also receive some finan- cial support from backers in Europe. The families say that there is a dual purpose in their determination to live the way they have chosen under such bleak conditions. The first is their determination to operate the educa- tional center and the other is to witness with their lives to the fact that peace and friendship is possible even between enemies of such long- standing. Abdalla Morad is a teacher of Hebrew in an Arab school in Nazareth. He and his wife and child are considering joining Neve Shalom. "Do people think there is no way for Jews and Arabs to live together?" Morad asks. "It is our job to show them that we Can." David Cohen, an Israeli im- migrant from England, who is also a prospective settler adds, "I hope Ab- dalla will not be proved wrong." Let's all hope the same. Shalom and Salaam. When a Country Is In Danger: Avoid Possible Grave Consequences Threats to Israel, even when only implied, serve as warnings always to be on guard lest the menacing materializes. The chief rabbi of France, Rene Sirat, was interviewed on the "Cards on the Table" television show in Paris on Jan. 12. One of the questions addressed to him was: "Is it anti-Semitic to criticize Mr. Begin's policies in the occupied territories when this policy is promoted by the religious party of Israel?" He replied: Criticizing Mr. Begin's policy — he's still Prime Minister — is perfectly legitimate since we criticize the policy of various other governments. But you have to be careful, for when a country is in danger you should know just how far you can go with your criticism because you can sometimes trigger - process that might have very grave consequences. I think I can say th, we're now engaged in a process in which this kind of question doesn't come up. Four years ago it was unthinkable that we could go to Cairo but now really believe that in a few years we will be traveling to Damascus and Amman. Since Camp David and the agreements, there has been a peace treaty between the most important state in the Middle East and Israel, and now anything possible. It's a question of time. Don't ask me, the Grand Rabbi, to talk to you about the political, side because in the first place I'm not competent to do so. But I do know that in the Camp David accords, there was also discussion of the status of the Palestinians. Some talks are under way; I think it's something that will still take much time but there are lots of international discussions, for instance between the United States and Panama, that went on for years. One can't expect everything all at once, but I do believe it is an important process . . . The emphasis of Chief Rabbi Sirat is to avoid anything that could undermine Israel's existence. The threats have not declined and the dangers are growing. Often well- intentioned Jews aid the enemy with misinterpretations of existing conditions. Unity in defense of Israel spells justice and militates for decency in the Middle East. This becomes an obligation for the humanists and the civilized in mankind. ,