THE JEWISH NEWS

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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951

Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.

Member of American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, National Editorial Association and
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Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

ALAN HITSKY
News Editor

Business Manager

HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor

UT 0

NOMY

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

FOR THE

WEST BANK

AND GAZA STRIP

it 1K SO .411NUMILUIMIla • • I VW.

This Sabbath, the 21st day of Sivan, 5742, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 8:1-12:16. Prophetical portion, Zechariah 2:14-4:7.

A_A-A

,••

Candlelighting, Friday, June 11, 8:49 p.m.

VOL. LXXXI, No. 15

Page Four

Friday, June 11, 1982

ZIONISTS AT HOME

Zionism has always been at home in this
community.
By the same token, Zionists are always at
home here.
This is the welcome sign this weekend, and
always, to the standardbearers of the Zionist
movement who are assembling here this
weekend for three days of deliberations on the
vital issues affecting the libertarian cause and
Israel's needs in a period of stress.
Always in the front ranks of the Jewish
national cause, this is the first time in the long
history of the Zionist Organization of America
that its governing body, the National Executive
Committee, will hold its sessions here. An im-
portant national convention was held here in
1929, when the revered Nahum Sokolow was
the distinguished guest.
• The conferees assembling here this
weekend represent a new generation of leader-
ship whose dedicated labors will be applauded
to the tune of commitments for continuity of
efforts that mark increased action in the cul-
tural and vigilant spheres, while aiming at up-
holding the hands of those who strive for free-
dom and. justice in Israel and fortifying the
forces striving for security for the Jewish state
in the Diaspora.
Hosting the NEC sessions here, the Detroit
District of the Zionist Organization of America
has a commendable record for service to the
movement. From ZOA's earliest years, when
the national presidents included Dr. Harry
Friedenwald, Dr. Richard Gottheil, Judge Ju-
lian W. Mack, the leadership of Supreme Court
Justice Louis D. Brandeis whose influence was
felt also during his years on the highest court of
this country, the Detroit adherents were in de-
voted Zionist ranks. They served with dedica-
tion under the administration in the years after
the Balfour Declaration and since then during
Israel's statehood. Now, under the guidance of
President Ivan Novick, the national and local
spokesmen act in unison to assure continuity for

the movement that has attained highest rank in
libertarian principles.

As the national ZOA administrative body
gathers here, it is proper to recall that one of the
earliest Zionists, David W. Simons, worked very
•closely with Mr. Justice Brandeis, as did one of
the earliest Detroit District presidents, Rabbi
A.M. Hershman. The list of dedicated Zionists is
too numerous to be listed here. This applies to
the national leaders, who included Louis
Lipsky, Judge Morris Rothenberg, Jacques
Torczyner, Emanuel Neumann, Rabbi • Joseph
Sternstein and the many other distinguished
personalities who enriched Jewish life as well
as the Zionist cause.
Detroit's commitment to the Zidnist cause
and to the ZOA's untiring labors are evidenced
also in the philanthropic actions. The Zionist
ideal surely inspired the generosity which gave
Metropolitan Detroit Jewry a leading role in the
support given uninterruptedly to the Allied
Jewish Campaign; in the high standards set
here in support for Hadassah, the Jewish Na-
tional Fund and also, even in the constructively
competitive sense, to the Histadrut Halutzim
forces; and to the pioneering that stems here for
Bar-Ilan University, for the Technion, for the
Weizmann Institute, for the Hebrew University
and the other universities in Israel.
Thus, the Zionist goal is much more than
merely philanthropic, state-building being
molded politically, yet the inner spirit has the
unseparated urgency of providing the financial
support without which redeemed statehood
would suffer.
These are among the factors to be remem-
bered as the ZOA's National Executive Com-
mittee begins its sessions here. The welcome to
them by this community is out of appreciation of
dedicated aims which must be applauded in a
spirit of the community's continued• commit-
ment to the Jewish libertarian cause and to
Israel.

TERRORISM KOWTOWED

How many assassination threats are needed
to compel international action to outlaw ter-
rorism?
How long will some legislators continue to
treat the mounting outrages as "political" when
they arise as a plague in the world.
The President's rite was threatened. Pope
John Paul II was the target of would-be 'assas-
sins twice. Israeli diplomats were victims in
murderous incidents.
In London last week, a distinguished Jewish
diplomat,. Shlomo Argov, was shot by an assail-
ant who was accompanied, police believe, by
terrorists from countries whose chief aim is the
destruction of Israel.
It might be foolhardy to contend that ter-
rorism can be curtailed legislatively. But when
it assumes an international character, and in
many instances, as in the assassination of
Robert Kennedy, friendship for Israel was the
inspiration for murder, it is time to take the
menace into account.
If it is foolhardy to believe that a firm stand
can be taken against terrorism on an interna-

tional scale, then it is equally foolhardy to
abandon hope and to refuse to cooperate in an
outlawing and condemnation of threats which
lead to assassinations. An example was pro-
vided by the U.S. House of Representatives
Foreign Affairs Committee on May 13.
The committee had before it the motion to
place Iraq back on the list of countries abetting
international terrorism. It was a 17 to 11 vote in
favor of the motion, with 12 abstentions. It was
a division along party lines.
The Michigan vote was interesting. Two
Democratic members supported the proposal
and a prominent Republican who is usually in
the ranks of Israel's supporters opposed it.
There is something amiss. Failure to get ac-
tion in the United Nations is due to anti-Zionist
anti-Semitism. Treating the issue as a party
matter rather than a human need places many
Americans in a guilty frame. If terrorism is not
outlawed it is condoned. Let this be recorded in
the atmosphere in which inhumanities are
abhorred.

Israel War of Independence
Recorded as Oral History

Israel suffered from five wars and the first, the War of Indepen-
dence, is often treated as forgotten history. In "Torn Country,"
(Franklin Watts Publishing Co.), Lynne Reid Banks provides a
deeply-moving and dramatic account of the struggle in which a verit-
able handful of refugees who settled in Palestine resisted the attacks
of all the Arab states. The first war emerges in a new light and as a
most heroic achievement.
Ms. Banks, who has lived in Israel for many years, in a kibutz,
and is married to the Israeli sculptor Chaim Stephenson, incorporates
the recollections of the state's most distinguished personalitieis. Her
story is so impressive a record of occurrences, many perhaps to be read
in print for the first time, that her work is a history to be studied as an
application of current experiences.
Israel's state-builders are interviewed for this most interesting
account. David Ben-Gurion, Yigal Yadin, Menahem Begin, Yitzhak
Ben-Zvi, Moshe Dayan, Walter Eytan, Chaim Herzog, Dov Joseph,
Shmuel Katz, Teddy Kollek, Chaim Landau, Nathaniel Lorch, David
"Mickey" Marcus, Golda Meir, Yaacov Meridor, Yitzhak Rabin,
Eliahu Sasson, Moshe Shamir, Yosef Tobenkin, Shmuel Toledano,
Ezer Weizmann are among those placed on the record:
Then there are the scores of British officials and Arab potentates
whose views were taken into account, in addition to the Christians
quoted by the author.
The collected views offer impressions which must be thoroughly
studied for an understanding of what had occurred, the difficulties
encountered, the devotion of the Jews fighting for the right to live as
free people in their historic homeland.
Therefore, no review could be complete without a record of the
personalities of all faiths, of the contrasting views, of impressions
which merit indelible recording. For such analyses vastly more space
is needed in recognition of the meritorious accomplishment of Ms.
Banks.
Here, briefly, there is need to call attention to several special
occurrences that are not to be ignored in a study of the Israel War of
Independence. The story of the Altalena is accounted for and in that
connection of the Menahem Begin association is significant. Then
there is the resistance to the organized Arab forces under the direc-
tion. of Fawzi el-Kawikji. His defeat marked the beginning of
triumphs which provided independence for Israel.
Of great significance is the story of the Arab village Kfar Baram.
It was occupied by Maronite Christians. They refused to join the Arab
forces who were out to destroy the Jewish fighting force and to prevent
Israel's emergence. The Baram villagers fled to Lebanon, returned,
sought rehabilitation. But in the war process their village was de-
stroyed. The leader quoted is Yousuf Yaacub, who maintains that
reconstruction of their village and resumption of life as loyal resi-
dents of Israel was pledged by Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion
and Menahem Begin but the promise, he maintains, is yet to be
fulfilled.
Then there is the account of the Arab Legion and its cometailp
Sir John Glubb, who became known as "Glubb Pasha." He was invi ed
to direct the Jordanian military force by the Emir Abdullah, King
Feisal's grandfather, who was later assassinated. Gen. Glubb is
quoted stating that the Arab Legion were not engaged until after the
British left in 1948. He is quoted blaming the Jews for trouble in .
Jerusalem because they refused to accept the United Nations decision
to internationalize the city. Ms. Banks states that Glubb "stoutly
denied that King Abdullah of Jordan had any designs on Jerusalem as
his capital."
These are among the many addenda to Israeli historical records
that make "Torn Country" a volume of notable significance meriting
lengthier review to follow.

