THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

6 Friday, May 22, 1981

Israel Remembers British Anti-Zionist

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MAY 17-31, 1981

(Continued from Page 1)
Rosetti recalls a time
back in 1929 when Bevin
served as a loyal supporter
of Zionism. By coicidence
there was a by-election in
...the East London consti-
tuency of Whitechapel, with
its large Jewish population,
at the same time as the pub-
lishing of the Passfield
White Paper. This docu-
ment reversed the 1917
pledge of the Balfour Dec-
laration for a -Jewish state
in Palestine and claimed
that such a notion was not
in British interests.
The Jews of Whitechapel
were up in arms at the
treachery of Macdonald's
Labor administration and
although they were predo-
minantly Labor voters they
threatened to switch their
allegiance.
Bevin took an active
interest in the campaign
and persuaded the Jews
to remain faithful to
Labor and the election
was won. "He did not
forget the favor," recalls
Rosetti.

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"Early in 1931 he brought
all the members of Parlia-
ment attached to his trade
union, numbering nearly
20, to a meeting at a Leices-
ter Square cafeteria. Myself
and other Zionist activists
like Dov Hos put forward
our arguments and Bevin
assured us they would do
something. Several months
later came the Macdonale
Letter. This took the sting
out of the Passfield paper
and asserted that immigra-
tion of Jews to Palestine
was a positive obligation of
the British government.
Essentially Bevin was a
non-Zionist, pursuing the
policies which he saw as
best benefitting Britain and
the Labor Movement. If it
was convenient to support
the Zionists in Whitechapel,
it was certainly not conven-
ient to do so after 1945 when
it was oil that counted. He
made a good minister of
labor during the Second
World War, in the coalition
cabinet, where his relation-
ship with the trade union
movement was indispensa-
ble at a time when the coun-
try had to pull together to
overcome the threat of Hit-
ler.
But he was uneducated
and as Threign secretary
after 1945 in the Attlee gov-
ernment, he was reputedly
unable to find Palestine on
the map, even though he
held its fate in his hands.
It was Bevin who gave
the order to refuse per-
mission for the "illegal
immigrant" ship Exodus
47 to land in Palestine in
the summer of 1947.
Against the advice of his
own high commissioner, the
foreign secretary ordered
the ship to return to Europe.
Refusing to land in France,
over 4,000 refugees were
forcibly disembarked on
German soil, in Hamburg.
Three Jews had been killed
in the British boarding op-
eration off Haifa, and the
rest eventually reached
Eretz Yisrael, many "illeg-
ally," by the end of 1948.
Bevin was born in West
England and grew up in an
orphanage. It was rumored
that he was illegitimate but

softened his opposition
and before his death in
1951 he looked more
favorably on Zionism.
Eliyahu Elat was Israel's
ambassador to Britain
between 1950 and 1959.
"We met several times in
my first months in Lon-
don," he says. He always
behaved correctly and I '
sensed neither anti-
Semitism or anti-Zionism
from him."
Ultimately, Bevin per-
haps typified the British
working class which he so
effectively championed: in-
sular rather than inter-
nationalist, with a tendency
to mistrust anything
anybody foreign, not leas..
Jews, who are considered
wealthy and powerful. In
Bevin's time they certainly
were not.
Ironically, today's inde-
pendent state of Israel
might never have come into
existence without Ernest
Bevin's implacable, and ul-
timately self-defeating,
The reality of Israel struggle against Zionism.
* * *

from the ruthless and force-
ful way that he welded to-
gether the Transport and
General Workers Union
from smaller unions, he had
many enemies only too
eager to call him a bastard.
He could barely read or
write and despised intellec-
tuals.
Rosetti remembers a
party at which he boasted
that he knew more about
economics than the likes of
Keynes. But this ignorant
arrogance left him at the
mercy of shrewder minds.
"His naivete made him
easy prey to the pro-Arab
machinations of the Foreign
Office," sayd Rosetti. "He
believed everything they
told him, even that the Jews
controlled American policy.
His gullibility gave him
anti-Semitic tendencies.
But he also genuinely came
to believe that Zionism was
a foolish dream that would
end in disaster for the Jews
if they did not give it up."

Britain Blocked-M.E. Accord

LONDON (ZINS) — Brit-
ain "restrained" Jordan
from reaching an agree-
ment with Israel in the year
after the Jewish state was
established in 1948, accord-
ing to a recently declassified
British Foreign Office
document.
The minister to Amman,
Sir A. Kirkbaide, is quoted
as telling Foreign Secretary
Ernest Bevin and his top
aides that "King Abdullah
was personally anxious to
come to an agreement with
Israel and in fact, it was our
restraining influence which
has so far prevented him
from doing so." Britain's
other Middle East envoys
concurred that, with the ex-
ception of Iraq and Saudi
Arabia "the Arab states
generally were inclined of
come to terms with Israel,"
though not formally.
However, Sir John
Troutbeack, head of the
British Middle East
Office in Cyprus and the
foremost expert of the

region, told Bevin that

while "in their hearts,
certain Arab govern-
ments wish to conclude
peace with Israel, all
were afraid of breaking
the Arab front," adding
that "there was a danger
of our incurring general
Arab resentment if we
encouraged any one state
to act independently."
He forsaw that "the Is-
raeli's might drag the Arab
state into a neutral bloc and
might even attempt to turn
us out of Egypt."

Herzl Institute
Names Dobin

"NEVER AGAIN"!

"Why should we waste our efforts and degrade ourselves by imploring aid from without? We have
learnt from our bitter recent experiences that safety and security cannot and will not come from the
outside as long as our present situation continues as it is. For a community of five million to throw
ourselves to the knives of the murderers and to call on others for help without using whatever strength
we have in defending our property and honor with our own lives...We must have a permanent organiza-
tion in all our communities an organization which
will be ever was
on the alert."
ammo
sm. —Ahad Ha'am
-

IIIMINO

RABBI DOBIN

.11.11.

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NEW YORK — Rabbi
Rubin R. Dobin, of Miami
Beach, Fla., and Herzliya,
Israel, has been appointed
lecturer-in-residence by the
Herzl Institute in New
York.
Rabbi Dobin will deliver a
series of programs on the
general theme: "Cults Mis-
sionaries and Spiritual Al-
ternatives."

Coal Accord

LONDON (JTA) — Bri-
tian will send its first ship-
ment of coal to Israel this
year as part of an agree-
ment under which Israel
could purchase 3.75 million
tons over the next five
years. .

e

ft. • • ":