THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 6 Friday, May 22, 1981 Israel Remembers British Anti-Zionist THE CULTURAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER . OF Metropolitan Detroit 6600 W: MAPLE — WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI. Presents THE ART TREASURES OF ISRAEL EXHIBITION AND SALE THRU THE COURTESY OF IN THE 00 \ /BEGINNING BEGINNING LTD 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. . SAVE $$$ RENT 'EM $500- 4 DAYS DON'T BUY VIDEO MOVIES 9 to 5 FAME STUNTMAN MbvieS such as MY BODY GUARD SOMEWHERE IN TIME AIRPLANE Choose from 1 00's of titles in stock 1 YEAR MEMBERSHIP $35 VIDEO PLUS 12 Mile at Evergreen OPEN 7 DAYS 569-2330 "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. ■ 1•1•1111P clip & mail I am a Jew and feel that I must help my people. Please send me an application to JDL. Nome Address JUL I do not wish to become a member of JDL but wish to help financially. 41111111111111111 MINS' LI ► 011 ■ Enclosed is cash , for: check $18 $36 $50 $100 "Mina AGAIN . ' Retui'n to: Jewish Experience, P.O. Box 2435, Southfield, Mich. 48034 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. • • ":