2. Friday, March 6, 191
.
THE, HETROIT , 1EWISH NEWS
.
Purely Commentary
When Hate Becomes Violent:
How a Deluded Arab Craves
for Holocaust Repetition
Is there a limit to hatred? Apparently not, judging by
at least one sentiment expressed by a Detroiter's advocacy
of violence.
It is yet to be proven that responsible Jews, or respon-
sible Jewish periodicals, have ever advocated violence.
True, there are always the exceptions, the few who are
uncontrolled. They do not speak for Jewry, they do not
express the Jewish sentiments which abhor harm to any-
one.
There is the defensive, when people are attacked. In
the recent column asserting that "Detroit Is Not a Suburb
of Beirut . . ." it was the plea for good neighborliness, for
Jewish and Arab citizens retaining the friendly and
cooperative relations that have existed here and which
must be perpetuated. But one Arab fellow citizen thought
otherwise. Here is his letter:
Dear Mr. Slomovitz:
Your recent attacks on Arabic community is
outrageous. The palestinian people are op-
pressed, murdered by Israelis majority of which
came to Palestine during this century. Re-
member that the Palestinian people were in the
Holly Land for centuries and they have more
rights for this land than jews who came here
recently from allover Europe and America.
What jews are doing to the Palestinian people is
a genocide and it is a holocaust of the Palesti-
nian people.
You jews, with your actions are asking for new
jewish holocaust. You did not learn from the
past. Remember, that all this injustice will fi-
nally bring the second holocaust and that will be
worse than one, which you got from Hitler.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. A. Khalifa
Ford Hospital Research
The writer of this letter is not on record as a physician.
He is a Grade 3 Research Assistant at Ford Hospital. This is
immaterial to the issue. What matters is that a resident of
the United States, a person sharing the benefits of the
American ideals of fair play, should have chosen to advo-
cate the genocidal bestialities out of an inexcusable hatred.
Are there enough of his Arab kinfolk to express a sense
of shame over such advocacy of mass murder?
A normal question arises: are there in the Arab ranks
among those described as "moderate" those who will re-
pudiate the Second Holocaust state of mind expressed with
an insane ferocity?
And who in Jewish ranks, who condones dealing with
the PLO, would trust the Second Holocaust advocates?
The Villainy That Makes
Clerics Quote Scriptures
Daniel and Philip Berrigan figured a lot in the news-
paper columns in recent years. Their most recent sen-
sationalism was their partnership with Jesse Jackson in
accumulating a list of 400 fellow-religionists who issued a
vicious attack on Israel. -
Now the two Berrigans, who were among the defen-
dants calling themselves the Plowshares Eight, went on
trial in Morristown, Pa., on the charge of breaking into a
plant and damaging missile parts.
Their pacifism could be a beside-the-point matter in
the issue. There are many who preach pacifism but do not
wage war on Jews or others they dislike.
The Berrigans in their defense in the Montgomery
County (Pennsylvania) Common Pleas Court claimed to
have been "summoned" by the Hebrew Prophets Isaiah and
Micah to "beat swords into plowshares," thus exposing "the
criminality of nuclear weaponry and corporate piracy."
What did Shakespeare say about the devil who quotes
Scripture for his purpose?
Since -the Scripture-quoting clerics had gone to Isaiah,
perhaps they will also take a lesson from Jeremiah, 15:19:
"Bring the precious out of the vile."
Growth of Anti-Semitism:
Its Fascistic French Aspect
Increasing hatreds are in evidence everywhere. Anti-
Semitism has re-emerged in many parts of the world. It is
inspired by Arabs as part of the anti-Israel propaganda. It
has grown where the PLO has gained recognition. It con-
tinues to be a problem in France. This is evidenced in the
writings of Bernard-Henri Levy. His views are summarized
in a Newsweek article "Fascism in France." Quotations
from this article are valuable in contrasting escalating
hatreds of Jews. The Newsweek report states in part:
As Levy sees it, Frenchmen throughout the
20th Century have dreamed of "Fascism wear-
ing French colors" — a home-grown national
socialism that, if ever put into practice, would
prove more radical than even Hitler's Nazism or
Mussolini's Fascism. He traces such tendencies
Who in the Ranks of the So-Called 'Moderates' Among Arabs
Is Ready to Reject the Barbarians' Advocacy of Another
Holocaust . . . Villainy That Makes Clerics Quote Scripture
to the Dreyfus affair at the turn of the century
and sees them again during the German occupa-
tion when, he says, Marshal Henri Philippe Pe-
tain's Vichy regime "gaily" and
"enthusiastically" set about applying a domesti-
cated Fascist model in France.
Current trends continue the 'pattern, Levy
argues. Today's "new right" in France, which
talks of genetic differences among racial groups
and appeals to "Indo-European" cultural val-
ues, echoes the "Aryanism" of such racist
theoreticians of the past as Arthur de Gobineau
and Edouard Drumont . . .
To back his argument, he develops a detailed
genealogy of French totalitarian thinking since
the late 1800s. He finds obvious sources in the
intensely nationalistic poetry of Charles Peguy,
who called for "a socialism in the sap and blood
in the race"; in the anti-Semitic writings of
Maurice Barres, who called Dreyfus "that Heb-
roid"; in the romantic monarchism of Charles
Maurras, in the appeal to violence for its own
sake by Georges Sorel, the high priest of French
anarcho-syndicalism who inspired the young
Mussolini.
Levy insists that the totalitarian temptation in
France is just as strong on the left as on the right.
To Levy, it seems in character that the French
Communist Party, which collaborated with Pe-
tain and Hitler early in World War II, is haras-
sing France's immigrant Arab workers in 1981.
Call it what you will. It is labeled "Fascism" in France.
It is the Communist influence in many lands. It is awful in
its stench both in Great Britain and the United States.
In England, it is perhaps as serious as in France. The
British Foreign Office has given so much comfort to the
PLO and to Arafat that the liberals have cause for concern.
In this country, the effects of anti-Semitism are al-
ready shocking.
How many are truly concerned? The Anti-Defamation
League, American Jewish Committee, the American
Jewish Congress keep exposing the menace. How many are
reacting in Christian ranks? Franklin Littell writes on the
subject extensively. There is a lack of the voluminous in
exposing the menace which is as dangerous to Christians as
it is to Jews —because hate begins with the Jew, some-
times with the Catholic, and then spreads like wildfire.
That's why extinguishing the flame is not the obligation
only of the Jew. But the Jews must lead in the vigilance,
lest the heat of bigotry becomes even more intolerable,
"Lest We Forget," as Dr. Franklin Littell entitles his col-
umn exposing the bigots and the haters.
Propaganda Leading to
Christian Deviations From
Policy of Fairness to Israel
Traditionally, Christians, churchmen and laymen,
played important roles in behalf of Zionism and in defense
of Israel.
Perhaps it is Arab propaganda that is resporisible for
deviations from such attitudes. Surely, the prejudices that
have become evident in the Third World added to the sorry
state of affairs. The Soviet Union played a leading role in
creating an anti-Israel atmosphere linked to the anti-
Semitic policies.
Last month, Israel's enemies managed to round up
hundreds of churchmen for an attack on Israel. The Berri-
gan brothers and Jesse Jackson were among them. They
have been in the ranks of the haters of Israel in the past and
this was a leadership repeat performance for prejudice
against Israel and Zionism and therefore of all Jews.
It is disappointing that a newspaper as fair in its
treatment of religious and world news as the Michigan
Catholic should have sensationalized the antagonistic and
misleading statement by the religious leaders!
There is a tragic note to be recorded in this connection.
It is revealed in a statement in Near East Report which
indicates that an old foe, Rabbi Elmer Berger, who had
been the chief manipulator for the American Council for
Judaism, was involved, Berger will be recalled as the Pon-
tiac rabbi, later spiritual leader of the Reform congregation
in Flint, and thereupon the director of the anti-Zionist
anti-Israel Council for Judaism. Even this council appar-
ently could not tolerate him and he moved into a more
extreme form of hatred for Israel. He and the haters of
Israel are exposed in Near East Report, Jan. 16, under the
heading: "Search: Uncovering Anti-Zionist Past":
In December 1975, 250 clergymen presented a
petition to the Israeli embassy in Washington urg-
ing "the right of displaced Palestinian Christians
and Moslems to return to their homeland." The
petition was organized by a Boston-based group,
Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine,
headed by Edmund R. Hanauer, a one-time sup-
By Philip
Slomovitz
porter of the anti-Zionist American Council for
Judaism.
Last week, the organization presented another
petition signed by nearly 400 clergymen. The
five-year period between petitions has enabled
Hanauer to find a few more signatories. It has also
made the organization's demands more extremist.
Last week's petition urged recognition of the
PLO and direct "U.S.-PLO talks (which) will allow
Washington to better understand Palestinian as-
pirations." The "Palestinian Human Rights Peti-
tion" concluded by calling on the U.S. govern-
ment "to reduce aid to Israel until she recognizes
the human rights of the Palestinian people."
Among the signers were the radicals Philip and
Daniel Berrigan, Operation Push's Jesse
Jackson, and Elmer Berger, who founded the
Council for Judaism 37 years ago. Berger, a Jew
long-active in anti-Israel organizations, is
membered for supinely kissing Yasir Araf.
hand when the terrorist chief appeared before the
United Nations.
The petition is perniciously one-sided. There is
no call for Arab recognition of Israel, and no call
for the PLO to renounce terrorism.
The establishment of Search for Justice and
Equality in Palestine was announced in Sep-
tember 1972, when Hanauer solicited member-
ship in a letter that began: "Dr. Elmer Berger has
kindly allowed me to inform you of a new effort on
behalf of justice for the Palestinians." Hanauer
explained that since 1958 he had "worked closely
with Dr. Berger as a supporter first of the Ameri-
can Council for Judaism and, later, of American
Jews Against Zionism."
"A prime concern will be reaching college stu-
dents, particularly young Jews," the letter con-
tinued. In a postscript, Hanauer said that "the
deplorable responses of American politicians and
the media to recent events in Munich (the mas-
sacre of Israeli Olympic athletes) and the Middle
East underscore the need" for his new organiza-
tion.
Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine
also maintains an office in Washington called the
Middle East Resource Center (MERC), one of the
many pro-PLO organizations clustered around
the PLO's Washington office. MERC functions as
a lobbying organization distributing material on
Capitol Hill, arranging workshops and meetings
for members of Congress and Palestinian Arabs,
and coordinating joint statements with other
pro-PLO groups. Despite their lobbying activi-
ties, neither MERC nor Search has registered
with Congress.
The endorsement of a hate document by a Jew does
not give it credibility. Elmer Berger is one of less than a
dozen people who remain in the hate-Israel campaign he
has been sponsoring. That Christian ministers should have
fallen prey to his propaganda is deplorable. Would that the
American Christian Palestine Committee leaders, people
like Dr. Carl Voss, men like Robert St. John, could again be
in the lead of a movement to counteract the vicious prop-
aganda. The hate Israel revelations do not necessarily dis-
credit the Christian churches. They challenge them. They
should be on the alert not to be misled by those who have
endorsed a vicious condemnation of Israel.
Interdating and the IRS:
Now the Tax Man Rules
on Religion, Morality
The justified fear that interdating may lead to inter-
marriage acquired a new aspect in a decision of the Internal
Revenue Service.
In an analysis of "The Churches vs. the State" News-
week reported:
The Internal Revenue Service came under
especially heavy fire for attempting to use the
tax-exempt status of religious organizations as a
club to force church compliance with "public
policy." Conference participants cited
example of Bob Jones University, a Fundame._
talist school in Greenville, S.C., which lost its tax
exemption because of its insistence on prohibit-
ing interracial dating on "Scriptural" grounds.
In an appeal by the IRS, a U.S. circuit court
decided that the school was violating national
public policy. The university, which receives no
Federal funds, is expected to appeal that deci-
sion to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the quoted IRS ruling were enforced, it could have a
tax assessment on love. It certainly would please all who
are concerned that mixed marriages should be stemmed.