2 Fri'dry, Oehler 2, 1911
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Anti-Israel Policies Engineered at UN With Support of
Secretary General Kurt Waldheim Exposed in Analyses of
His Quest for. Re-Election to the International Position
By Philip
Slpmovitz
`To Bigotry, No Sanction' the Slogan Exposing KUrt Waldheim's Anti-Semitism, UNESCO's prejudices
Kurt Waldheim seeks re-election as Secretary General of the United Nations. He
must have the support of both the U.S. and USSR. A few days before his official •
announcement that he was a candidate for retention of the important international post,
an analysis of his attitudes showed that he carefully avoids offending either nation. But
he does not hesitate to offend Israel. It can be said without fear of contradiction that he . .
goes out of his way to be antagonistic to the Jewish state. As an Austrian, he seems to •
follow the line of the Jewish arch enemy of the Jewish state, Austrian Chancellor Bruno
Kreisky.
Is there evidence that Waldheim is unfriendly to Israel?
An enlightening lengthy essay, "The UN's Man in the
Middle" by Jane Rosen, United Nations correspondent for the
Guardian of London, gave the facts in the New York Times
Magazine, Sept. 13. The article by Miss Rosen is subtitled
"Kurt Waldheim, seeking a third term, must balance conflict-
ing interests deftly. His fractious constituency mistrusts him
as often as it applauds him."
Israel's friends are compelled nearly always to mistrust
him. Waldheim, together with UN Undersecretary General
Brian Urquhart, have helped to plant seeds of hate for Israel.
Here is the joint attitude of the two men as told by Jane Rosen:
All United Nations members are equal, but some
_
are less equal than others.
On issues involving South Africa and Israel,
the pariahs of the United Nations, Waldheim ap-
KURT WALDHEIM
pears to have abandoned his nonpartisanship. He
routinely denounces racism and repression in South Africa, but he is much
more guarded in criticizing the human-rights violations of the United Na-,
tions"Third-World and Communist majority.
He often singles out Israel for blame, failing to note that many of Israel's
actions are retaliatory. When the Israeli commando unit staged its dramatic
rescue of the Israeli hostages at Entebbe airport in Uganda in 1976, Wal-
dheim called it "a serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United
Nations member state," only later adding that humanitarian and moral •
issues had also to be taken into account. At an Arab League dinner a year
ago, he endorsed Palestinian statehood without mentioning Israel's right to
exist. Israeli violence in southern Lebanon has consistently drawn his
rebukes; PLO violence is often played down or unidentified.-He denounced
Israel for attacking the Iraqi nuclear reactor but he did not criticize Iraq for
attacking Iran.
Most of Waldheim's official statements on the Middle East are drafted
by Under Secretary General Urquhart, who is known to be sympathetic to
the Palestinians. Although he stresses that neither he nor Waldheim is
anti-Israel, they both obviously reflect the views of the United Nations
majority, which is anti-Israel.
Waldheim supports Israel's right to exist within "secure and recognized
boundaries," as Security Council Resolution 242 puts it, but because 242
treats the Palestinians only as a refugee problem, he thinks that either it
should be amended or else the Council should adopt a complementary
resolution to take account of Palestinian rights.
The anti-Israel actions at the UN, primarily in the General Assembly, very often in
the Security Council, approached .the disgraceful. Waldheim didn't do a thing to obviate
it.
An example of the venom that has spread, without a word of protest from him, was
UNESCO's.
The Sept. 4 issue of Near East Report contained an expose of the UNESCO role by Dr.
William Korey, director of policy research of the International Council of Bnai Brith. Dr.
Korey is an authority on UN procedures, having represented the Bnai Brith as a UN
observer for some years. Under the title "To Bigotry, No Sanction," he wrote in the Near
East Report:
That anti-Jewish bigotry may soon be given sanction by a world body
committed to combatting racism is by no means inconceivable. UNESCO
ordinarily might be expected to repudiate an organization distributing hate
material. Instead, its director-general has been authorized to negotiate a
relationship with that group.
The supreme irony surfaced at a meeting of the 45-member policy-
making executive board of UNESCO on May 15. At issue was the question of
whether UNESCO should enter into "relations" with the Islamic States
Broadcasting Organization (ISBO).
What ISBO stood for was already known to UNESCO observers. In
January 1981, the organization fully described its own activities in a book-
let which was later distributed at UNESCO House, in Paris.
The booklet is replete with illuminating examples of obSZ-ene bias. Page
16 describes an ISBO radio series about six companions of the Prophet who
supposedly defended Islam from "the conspiracies of the Jewa." The series
was entitled "The Mission of Martyrs."
On the same page, another 30-part radio series was offered to confront
the "Zionist, racist and colonialist dangers threatening the Islamic nation."
The series is called "The Raid and Intellectual .
Conquest."
Another page of the booklet characterizes a
19-part color television series designed to ex-
pose "the conspiracies that the Jews engineered
against Islam." The TV programs were scarcely
of a nature to realize UNESCO's proclaimed
educational and cultural purposes.
For that reason, the U.S. representative to
UNESCO, T. Elkin Taylor, in a letter to
Director-General Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow on
May 13, objected that "programs such as these
can only inflame racial, religious and national
prejudices imperiling the very goals of peace
and international cooperation that UNESCO is
supposed to promote."
The conclusion was self-evident. It would be
WILLIAM KOREY
unseemly for UNESCO to establish any kind of
formal relationship with ISBO. The American representative put it more
diplomatically: "... we have very serious reservations about the appropri-
ateness of UNESCO entering into an agreement with the organization."
. 1
While the debate in the executive board centered on the technical
consideration of whether the director-general should engage in formal
negotiations with ISBO, the more immediate reality was petropower influ-
ence in the international body. Negotiations were urged by( - Saudi Arabia
and the Gulf states.
Not surprisingly, the West European democracies were reluctant to
offend the Muslim countries by holding a formal vote. They warned the U.S.
would find itself isolated. The American delegation refused to bow to such
pressures, and in the final countdow, the United States stood alone at
UNESCO. The vote on May 18 to support negotiations with ISBO was 33 to 1
(the U.S.). Six, mainly West European countries, abstained and five were
absent.
Recently, UNESCO has elevated the terrorist PLO to an enviable spe-
cial status in the international community. /At its general conference in
Belgrade in the fall of 1980, UNESCO voted to give the PLO a consultative
voice in the funding of educational programs for the Palestinians Arabs. In
an even more extraordinary UNESCO decision, the PLO is to be financially
assisted in order to improve its propaganda machinery.
Testifying to the PLO's unique status, Yasir Arafat was offered the
UNESCO platform at its closing session on Oct. 27. The fiery 90-minute
speech by the terrorist chieftain predicted that the Palestinian flag would
"fly high on the sacred hills of Jerusalem." The address ended with a
prolonged standing ovation.
But the UNESCO power-brokers ought to be aware of the conse-
quences. The U.S. Congress responded in 1975 to the extreme bias of UN-
ESCO toward the Jewish state by withholding the American assessment,
which amounts to one-quarter of the UNESCO budget. The city of Washing-
ton takes seriously the pronouncement of its namesakes: "To bigotry, no
.
.
sanction."
This is a time for protest and condemnation. It may not matter how successful Kurt
Waldheim will be in his campaign for re-election. Ha Third World candidate beats him,
the situation may not differ, the hatred against Israel having become so deep-rooted%
approaching the anti-Semitic. At least in the matter involving the UNESCO there
should be organized action. The United States Senate must be asked to deny support for
UNESCO as long as it adhered to anti-Semitic policies.
It isn't pleasant always to be protesting. But it is necessary. It is easier to deal with
the outside world by telling jokes and quoting Scripture, as in the Ronald Reagan-
Menahem Began exchange at the White House on Sept. 9. But when knifed constantly,
very often in the back as a constituent of the international organization, Israel must fight
fearlessly and without apologies. World Jewry, especially American Jews, must join in
that battle. "To Bigotry, No Sanction."
The Vigilantes for Yiddish:
Paving New Language Roads
others who lend glory in a battle for survival of a language
among the richest in literary treasures.
This is an addendum to an earlier review of the status
of Yiddish as well as Ladino. The latter is being treated as a
dialect; the former has a marked measure of the continuity.
Yiddish clubs are springing up in several communities
in the United States and in Israel. These are indications of
renewed strength. Moshe and Sarah Friedman, among the
staunchest supporters of Yiddish, came back from Israel
exhilarated by the progress made in behalf of Yiddish in Tel
Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. The clubs in those cities in-
spired them in the faith that Yiddish can and does make
progress.
The Detroiters in the Yiddish ranks are adamant in
their devotion. Among the Yiddish publications that have
an influence in Jewish quarters is the Kemfer, the Yiddish
organ of the Labor Zionist Alliance. A quarterly that has
gained cultural status is Unzer Eigen Vort, Detroiter Wolf
Snyder serving as one of its editorial contributors.
Devotees who give strength to Yiddish here include
Adele Mondry, who authored her reminiscences in a Yid-
dish book, which has been translated into English; Goldie
Adler, Dena (Mrs. Irving) Greenberg, Rose Kaye, scores of
Max M. Fisher, the Barney
Baruch Without Park Bench
That's quite a tribute to
eminent Detroiter Max M.
Fisher, in Forbes Magazine.
"When Do You Build
Character?" is the key head-
lined query to the Forbes ar-
ticle (Sept. 14), and it pro-
ceeds to describe how Mr.
Fisher gained access to crude
oil from Ohio Oil Co. at a time
when gasoline was selling at
eight cents a gallon.
He was a lad just out of
school, and he had the per-
sonality generated by the
character elaborated upon in
the Forbes article.
There was trust in the
•
MAX FISHER
young lad and he began to develop his plan to encourage the
conversion of crude info salable products.
Forbes tells how he managed Marathon, Aurora and'
Speedway into leading firms, capturing a large market.
There is the story also of a beginning, in Keystone Oil,
which he later acquired, after it has been developed by his
father, the late William Fisher.
The story could have been lengthened with mention of
the two partners of William Fisher, the late Leon
(Komisaruk) Kay and Nathan Epstein.
Then there is an account in Forbes of Mr. Fisher
turning to real estate, the development of the Troy Some-
rset area, now one of the most blossoming in this part of the
state. In this activity, too, two prominent names could have
been included, the Stollmans (Phillip and Max) and Samuel
Frankel.
The exciting portion of the Forbes article is the praise
for Mr,.. Fisher for his philanthropic activities. He is spoken
of as "the Barney Baruch without the park bench," and this
applies to the Fisher relationship with Presidents and na-
tional notables.
The Forbes article is an 'exciting piece, fully described
by the industrialist - philanthropist - Jewish leader for his
very impressive role as Jew and as American.