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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 16th day of Nisan, 5742, is the first day of Hol Hamoed Passover, and the following scriptural selections will be read in our
synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 33:12-34:26, Numbers 28:19-25. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 37:1-14.
Hol Hamoed Passover
Sunday, Exodus 13:1 - 16, Numbers 28:19 - 25. Monday, Exodus 22:24 - 23:19, Numbers 28:19 - 25. Tuesday, Numbers 9:1 - 14,.28:19 - 25.
Concluding Days of Passover
Wednesday, Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 13:17-15:26, Numbers 28:19-25. Prophetical portion, II Samuel 22:1-51.
Thursday, Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 15:19-16:17, Numbers 28:19-25. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 10:32-12:6.
Candlelighting, Friday, April 9, 6:48 p.m.
VOL. LXXXI, No. 6
Page Four
Friday, April 9, 1982
AN UNDENIABLE WAR
Five wars are in the historic record and an-
other one is accelerating. The War of Indepen-
dence of 1948, the Suez Campaign of 1956, the
1,67 Six-Day War, the War of Attrition of 1970
and the 1973 Yom Kippur War remain imbed-
ded iv•Israel's memories. What is happening
now is another war, Israel's resistance to a
mounting PLO attack on Israel's sovereignty.
Any other interpretation would be lacking in
realism.
True: loss of life is heartrending. The reaction
of the Israeli armed forces to attacks by youths
at the instigation of their elders represents a
deplorable situation. What is occurring is a
mobilization of another type of army, the
youngsters in -schools functioning in the area
under Israel's administration in Judea and
Samaria. This is a type of army that is more
difficult to confront and the current Israeli ex-
periences are more difficult than any of the
previous five wars.
It is all-too-easy to criticize. Of course there
are errors. Understandably, the views of the
Gush Emunim and the impending withdrawal
of Israel from Sinai contribute towards instiga-
tions. At the root of the current events, however,
is the instigation to rioting that comes from
PLO forces in Beirut and the battle for under-
standing and for what appears like an unat-
tainable peace with them is becoming more dif-
ficult.
Undeniably, it all stems from the elements
who threaten Israel's very existence. With more
than 40 nations already having provided recog-
nition for these enemies of Israel and the panic
into which others are falling under threat from
the Beirut-oriented enemies, the situation is
grave.
Israel is fighting a war, and the world press
finds it necessary only to show rioting and guilt
from Jewish ranks. There is too little to provide
understanding that what has occurred, what is
continuing, is part of the battle to destroy Israel.
What is occurring may have very little effect
on the crucial April 25 ctate .. of irael's with-
drawal from Sinai. But it aggravates autonomy
discussions, it injures the limited peace negotia-
tions with Egypt, it tests the good judgment of
statesmen and nations.
It challenges the Jewish people. Jews keep
asking where do we go from here, what's the
ultimate? Difficult questions make it even more
difficult to provide answers. The certainty is
that in the interest of survival, which is
threatened, there is the endless need for pa-
tience, with a duty to retain unity and to be
obligated to assure Israel's security. Time will
hopefully solve warfare problems and will lead
toward peace. Patience and dedication to the
cause of Israel's assured sovereignty are com-
pulsory.
THE COMMUNAL PRIDE
A traditional sense of dignity as a people,
described as rahamanim bnai rahamanim,
again takes shape as a pragmatism in this
community.
Whatever the economic handicap, despite the
conditions affecting the financial conditions re-
sulting from the many blows that have fallen
upon this state, much more than any other in
the nation, Metropolitan Detroit Jewry is
emerging responsive and responsible in the an-
nual fund-raising task now in progress.
Allied Jewish Campaign contributors have
-thus far responded as generously as in past
years, which have resulted in this community
being labeled among the most generous. If there
are a few setbacks they have been over-
shadowed by increased giving and uninstinted
interested from many others.
These are good signs for an organized effort in
which dedicated volunteerism continues to be
an aspect of devotion to and concern for
humanitarian causes and Jewish cultural-
spiritual aims.
The Allied Jewish Campaign objectives em-
brace so many obligations that its role in Jewish
affairs keeps growing in immensity. While Is-
rael's social and educational services and then
the needs of settlers in Israel draw upon the
fund's major sources, there are some 60 addi-
tional causes to be provided for.
Care for the elderly, housing provisions for
them, the civic protective movements, the rec-
reational needs — these are among the many
which depend upon the local fund-raising.
The manner in which the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign is treated is, hopefully, leading towards
the raising of the $19 million sum that is so vital
for an assured protection for the needs to be
cared for. It is to the credit of this responsive
community that it is on the road toward fulfil-
ling these obligations.
GRAIN OF TRUTH
With every additional step in the direction of
searching for data aimed at branding Israel
with inhuman policies, there are mounting ob-
ligations to demand truthful approaches to Is-
rael's, defense conditions.
There seems to be an assumption that
mobsters have the right to threaten the lives of
Israeli police forces and the latter must not pro-
tect themselves. Mob rule has become an aspi-
ration for sensation-seeking correspondents.
Similarly, an approach to peace by Israel is
polluted with reports arousing suspicions.
Israel doesn't have trouble enough, vis-a-vis
April 25 and gangsterism. Sensation-seekers
keep pouring salt on Israel's wounds with dis-
tortions in the press.
%MA
Ben-Ami Traces Israel's
Rebirth Over Bitter Roads
Yitzhaq Ben-Ami traces historic roles in the making of Israel, in
the struggles for redemption, in the Zionist activities that involved
both the defiance of the British in organizing what the Mandatory
Power called "illegal immigration" into Israel, as well as the resis-
tance both to Arabs and ttle:British. He was in the forefront of the
•
ranks ()Me
"Years. orWradi: Days of aloe' (Abbeit Speller and Sons, Pub-
lishers) is the eamatic story of Ben,Ami's leadership in organizing
the resistance to Nazism and as an activist in fulfilling the Zionist
aims.
Ben-Ami earns the title of historian
of the era of Israel's emergence into
statehood. He had an important role in
Israel as an Irgunist. His description
of the tragic chapter dealing with the
Altalena and David Ben-Gurion's de-
clared war on Menahem Begin and the
Irgun is among the most descriptive of
the historical incidents.
Ben-Ami, a third-generation Is-
raeli, was one of the close associates of
Vladimir Jabotinsky and sub-
sequently also with Menahem Begin.
From 1933, when he first associated
with the Irgun, he was in closest con-
tact with the movement and its lead-
ers.
"Days of Glory" in the book's title is
YITZHAQ BEN AMI
the emergence of Israel into statehood
and the affirmation of many of the aims of the Revisionist Zionists
who functioned as the Irgun, now embodied in the ruling party of
Israel. "Years of Wrath" marks the agonies of the Nazi era. Ben-Ami
had a role in both, as a leader in the movement for freedom, and also as
an organizer of the resistance to Nazism and opposition to the British
in the years of their mandatory rule.
There is a family background that relates to this interesting
account of the life of a fighter for Jewish freedoms, in the description
of the Ben-Ami family's miseries under the Czars, commencin
the Czarist persecutions in the 1880s. Here, too, there is an MI— c
reference to the few, surviving the 1881-1882 pogroms, who left for
Palestine. This is where his family's Israeli loyalties begin.
Life in the pre-Israel Palestine, the First World War, the pre-
World War II factors, mark the early chapters of this libertarian's life.
Then come his assignments in rescue efforts during the Nazi era.
Many of the personal experiences during that era point to Ben-Ami's
organizing abilities in saving Jews and providing for their safe refuge
in the Jewish settlements in Palestine.
The struggles, the difficulties encountered at the UN, British
obstructions and the White Paper restricting Jewish immigration to
Palestine, provide a thorough account of the bitterness experienced in
the years preceding Israel's recognition and admission to the UN.
Then come the years of identification with the Irgun, the
David Ben-Gurion role, the Altalena and the defense of Begin's mis-
sion, together with the scores of incidents relating to national rebirth
and the Irgunist opposition which eventually led to the current status
of the Begin government.
Ben-Ami's book is a collection of memoirs which truly represent
valuable chapters in Jewish history and could well serve as a textbook
in j - udging the sovereignty of Israel and the libertarianism that made
it possible.
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