2 Friday, December 4, 1981 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Lest There Be an Absentmindedness, Let There Be Resort to the Historic Record, Taking Into Account the Europeans Merging to Obstruct Israel, the Arabs Allied to Destroy By Philip Slomovitz Examinging the Record of the Media and the Spokespeople for Arabs Commandeering Destructive Forces Perhaps there will be a temporary lull in the gang-up aimed at forcing destructive schemes upon Israel. The Arabs are not united and the Morocco conference was halted after a brief few hours of acrimony. The hallucinations over a mythical Saudi approach to the recognition of Israel is the cause. But they remain united in opposition to the Camp David decisions, and on that score there will surely be another reunion of Arab forces. There is need for preparation for such a revival of Arab propagandizing. There may never be total Arab unity: only the hatred for Israel unites them. But the spread of venom will be difficult to halt. With the Camp David aftermath in a debatable status, the threat of its demolition must be viewed in all seriousness. It is heard and repeated too often, that Camp David's peace aims are finished. This is being ascribed to the European Economic Community and its rulings arrived at in Venice more than a year ago. Its destructiveness is apparent. It aims at forcing Israel to bow to her enemies. Even worse is the unity among the European nations, and their Venice decisions, if accepted-, could lead to Israel's destruc- tion. Therefore the Israeli protest against the participation of four important European powers in the proposed Sinai peacekeeping force is understandable. So: Israel knows and recognizes her enemies and obstructionists. The refusal to turn the Camp David documents into a suicide pact are being termed by some as an Israeli failure to cooperate with the United States. One must have greater faith in the U.S.- Israel friendship, maintaining that it will survive the animosities. Meanwhile, there are the attempts to prove that there is a tendency in Arab ranks to grant recognition to Israel and her right to exist. On the latter score it is at last being emphasized sufficiently that Israel and her defenders do not need such an approval and will not submit to it. Sufficient! Israel exists and is not subject to a recognition of the fact. Regrettable as the repetition is, there is the compulsion to indicate the extent of Arab assertions that Israel does not have the right to exist. In the process it is important that Americans especially should know and understand the extent of Arab hatred for the United States in the matter involving Israel's role in the Middle East. The American Jewish Committee's Institute of Human Affairs has compiled some of the declarations of hatred for the United States, the Arab endorsements of Soviet policies, the threats to `Israel. Here is a partial account of this venom: I tell you frankly, in the light of the present balance of the conflict in the region and the world, that if we had the capability to sign treaties with the Soviet Union we would have signed 1,000 of them, and if we had land to grant the Soviet Union bases, we would have given it 1,000 bases. This is because we are facing an enemy bigger than Israel. Our enemy is the United States ... This is why we say that the revolution cannot triumph without the Arabs and without an ally and a friend as strong as the Soviet Union. — Interview with PLO deputy chief Abu Iyad in Ar-ra'y al-Amm, Aug. 17, 1981 Brothers and comrades, our battle is long and arduous. It will continue as long as U.S. imperialism has any connection with Arab land, or Arab sea, or Arab sky. This area will not calm down until the United States leaves the three Arab seas: the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea-- which is an Arab sea — and the Arabian Sea. This area will never be calm as long as U.S. im- perialism has its bases and agents. — Speech by Syrian Prime Minister Abde ar-Ra'uf al-Kasen in Tishrin, Aug. 23, 1981 The Chinese were the first. They provided training and weapons to us. The Soviets as well as the other socialist countries stand on our side with political and military assistance ... If it really came to a comprehensive war, the Soviet Union would be our ally. Because we would rather be friends of the Communists than victims of Zionist and imperialist occupa- tion powers .. . We will never allow Isarel to live in peace. We will never grant it complete security. Every Israeli must feel that behind each wall there is a guerrilla standing and aiming at him .. . We will never recognize Israel, never the usurper, the colonialist, the imperialist .. . — Interview with PLO Political Director Farouk Kaddoumi in Der Stern, July 30, 1981 This is a collection of warnings and admonitions. They serve to indicate that the naive who inconsistently advise Israel, as some editorial writers have done, to look in other directions than the Camp David Accords and to rush the abandonment of the Sinai territory, that for a vital peace there is need for cooperation. It is the Middle East's tragedy that the need for a genuine accord has not enrolled the support of the Saudis and the Jordanians, who obstruct. • Thus, the difficulties for Israel, always accused as intransigent, are monumental. Added to the internal and many domestic problems, the yerida, the economic pres- sures, the political challenges, Israel, always under attack, must ever be on the alert. That's where her friends must step in: not to make the road to security and peace too difficult. Dictionary Shleps' Readers to Knowledge of Yiddish Yiddish has its magic. It enchants the Jew and in- trigues the Gentile. This may be the explanation for the "dictionary" sprinkled with aphorisms and anec- dotes which its collector and narrator, Arthur Naiman, chooses to entitle "Every Goy's Guide to Common Jewish Expressions" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) Why it is specifically dedicated to the "Goy" may need explaining. After all, there are so many Jews who do not know the Yiddish and related "Jewish Ex- pressions." Nevertheless, the volume has a great deal of merit. As an exoneration, if such is needed, and therefore as a compli- ment to Arthur Naiman, let the subject be treated as one of international interest. That's the role of Yiddish: it is an_ inter- nationalized language because it is spoken wherever one meets Jews, except in the Sephardic communities where Jews had spoken Ladino which is also on the decline, even more so than Yiddish. One of the methods of judging Naiman's "Goy- Jewish Expressions" in- volvements is to select some of his topics. The most appropriate at the moment is "Shlep." As Naiman de- fines it: * * * Shlep To lug; to carry some- thing burdensome. Also, someone who is a drag. He's such a shlep. Also (a minor variation), a slob; someone who drags his body around. Shlepper is another word for this meaning. (Also see shlemiel.) * * * There is a special reason for drawing upon this word. William Safire, the promi- nent New York Times Op-Ed Page essayist, also writes a weekly column for the New York Times Sun- day Magazine under the title "On Language." He is the master of the English language. He also knows some Yiddish. In a recent "On Lan- guage" essay in the NYTimes Magazine (Nov. 8) Safire entitled his essay "Shlepper and Bungie." While it was mostly on Bungie, it had its emphasis also on "Shlepper," and that relates to "Shlep." Safire drew upon Leo Rosten's "Joys of Yiddish," and here is how he introduced his Shlepper-Bungie discus- sion: "I have a favorite old suit- case covered with stickers from faraway places and tags from forgotten Presidential summits (`Formal Wear — Off-load Iran Only'). But carrying the big bag around gives me a backache, and I look with envy at people who breeze through airports with de- signer luggage (when did a suitcase stop being called a `grip'?) that rolls on built-in wheels. "Long hours of staring at flight attendants marching to and fro suggested a good way of eating my cake and hav- ing it too (not 'having my cake and eating it,' which means nothing). At a lug- gage counter, I asked: `Do you have one of those metal things with wheels and a telescoping handle that I can put my valise on and drag behind me?' " 'You want a shlepper and a bungie,' said the clerk promptly. I immediately guessed the derivation of `shlepper' — from the Ger- man schleppen, to drag. "In The Joys of Yiddish,' Leo Rosten told the old joke about the formally dressed clerk in London's Fortnum & Mason department store who asked an American customer: 'Shall I have these jars of marmalade shipped air express?' When the customer said, don't mind carrying them; I'm from the Bronx,' the clerk replied, 'I understand, madam, but still -- why shlep?' "But lungie' was a mys- tery. Recently Lisbeth Mark of New York sent me this query: have been stumped by a word that I cannot find in my dic- tionaries. It is an elastic cord with hooks on either end, wrapped by brightly colored threads and usually sold in hardware stores and bike shops . . . I've heard them called `stretchies,' `shock cords' and 'those rub- bery things with hooks.' I've always called them 'bungee cords.' I've never had occa- sion to spell the word 'bungee' until now.' She asked for aid in the spelling and derivation of the word. "In the supplement to the Oxford English Dic- tionary, 'bungle,' or 'bungy,' is defined as slang for 'India rubber." In one of his most recent NYTimes Op-Ed Page es- says, Safire used another Yiddish word: "Shnook." It was applied to a govern- ment official. Here is how Naiman treats the "Shnook": * * * shnook (shnook) A jerk; the kind of guy who spends a night in a hotel and leaves his own to- wel. (Also see shlemiel.) * * And this is how Naiman pursues the subject, describ- ing "Shlemiel": * * * shlemiel (shluh-MEEL or -MEE-ul) A jerk, particularly a nerdy sort of jerk. Yiddish has more words, for this concept than any other ten languages put to- gether. Here are just a few of them: kuni lemel, nayfish, nebbish, . . . shlemiel, shlep, shlepper, shlump, shmageggie, shmendrik, shmo, shnook, yutz and zhlub. There are minor variations between these words, of course, but they all indicate ineptness, lack of common sense, lack of physical grace and sex appeal, a quality of hopelessness and — how shall I put it — well, shlum- piness. Now — Eskimos have fourteen words for snow and one word for anything that flies — whether it's an in- sect, a bird or an airplane. We have lots of words for things that fly, but (unless we're skiers) only one word for snow. Languages reflect the environments in which they are spoken, the cul- tures of the people who speak them, and what's im- portant to the survival and well-being of those people. So, the question, is what was it about the environ- ment of the shtetl, and per- haps Jewish culture in gen- eral, that produced so many words for shlemiel? Are there actually more Jewish shlemiels? Or are Jews just more aware of shlemiels be- cause it was important to be? Did Jewish shlemiels have a higher death rate in pogroms and the like? Was it harder for them to deal with the goyim who have surrounded and outnum- bered the Jews for 2000 years? Don't look at me. I don't know the answers. But I sure think they're interest- ing questions. * * * The periods above, in what is seldom done in these columns — censor! — ex- plains the explanation ac- cepted for Naiman's" "Ev- ery Goy's Guide to Common Jewish Expressions" as being "ribald." Here is how the word is defined in the Random House Dictionary: "Ribald: Vulgar or inde- cent in speech, language, etcetera. Coarsely mocking, abusive or irreverent." Naiman's isn't all that ef- fusive, but in some portions of the book this applies. It remains an enjoyable, humorous guide with more than 500 entiries. Industrial Collage Highlights Jerusalem 7sratech Exhibit This collage by Elmer Winter was created from catalogues, brochures and other materials describing Koor Industries, an Israeli manufacturer of high- technology products. Winter, a businessman-artist from Milwaukee, had 23 of his collages on display at Isratech '81 in Jerusalem last month.