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THE JEWISH NEWS

(LISPS 275 520

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

rouf51" SEASON 1982

Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.

Member of American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, National Editorial Association and
National Newspaper Association and its Capital Club.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing- Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 -
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $15 a year.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager

Editor and Publisher

ALAN HITSKY
News Editor

HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor

DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager

Sabbath Scriptural Selections -

This Sabbath, the 28th day of Sivan, 5742, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 13:1-15:41. Prophetical portion, JoShua 2:1-24.

Monday and Tuesday, Rosh Hodesh Tammuz, Numbers 28:1-15.

The Land on The Nile
between Israel and iheArab world

Candlelighting, Friday, June 18, 8:52 p.m.

VOL. LXXXI, No. 16

Page Four

Friday, June 18, 1982

FORTIFYING LIBERTY

Lebanon was never at war with Israel. As the
only neighbor of the Jewish state in a state of
calmness, it did not make peace with Israel in
order to avert animosities with the Islamic
world where the threat to Israel's existence had
become a way of life. Nevertheless, there was
frequent evidence of an inbred friendship for
Israel, of a desire for peace. Especially in the
Christian ranks, primarily among the Maro-
nites, there were gestures of good will and a
brewing hope that Israel would triumph in her
aim of strengthening sovereignty with an even-
tual friendly diplomatic relationship with all
the nations in the Middle East.
What had occurred in the past decade is a
matter of record. An emerging PLO threatened
not only Israel but the stability of the entire
area. The terrorists sought sanctuary in Jor-
dan. King Hussein reacted; he drove them out of
his country; he ordered the massacre of many
thousands. That was in 1970. That's when the
PLO, seeking headquarters for their menacing
plans, found haven in Lebanon, chiefly because
of disunity there between Christians and Mos-
lems.
That's how it all began, and these are the
well-established facts in a development that led
to the tragedies that struck the people of Leba-
non and the dangers Israel faced from the at-
tacks launched on the northern Israeli com-
munities. Less known and little understood is
the part played in the devilish acts by the Soviet
Union. The deadly weapons used to menace the
lives of Israeli residents on Lebanon's border
came from Russia. The encouragement given.
the PLO by Syria also was in the form of
weaponry provided by Russia. The Libyan and
Iraqi partnerships with the arch enemy of Israel,
also were accompanied by the blessings from
the Kremlin.
The menace grew out of proportion and Is-
rael's security was never endangered as much
as in recent months. The response is now a mat-
ter of record. Israel was forced to call a halt to
the barbarities which drove residents of north-
ern communities into air raid shelters, which
interrupted normal life and made children the
objects of terror, separating them from families
and their schools as the underground dugouts
became means of escape from death.
Of course the Arab world rejects Israel's reac-
tions to terror. It has condoned it and will not
resist from it. Tragically, the Western world,
knowing full well what is at stake, always fails
to do anything other than join in condemning
Israel at the United Nations, thus turning the
UN into a source of sham and hypocrisy.
What those who nourish condeinnations also
refuse to acknowledge, and the Free World
needs to know, is that the present operation of
driving the PLO out of Israel's reach also is
libertarian: that it serves the basic cause of re-
storing liberty to Lebanon.
The horror that has struck Lebanon stems
from PLOism. The banditry that took control of
that country comes from the terrorism intro-
duced there by the PLO. By establishing secu-
rity for herself in the action in Lebanon, Israel
also has created the means of freeing that coun-

try from the PLO and assisting it in becoming
again a free, democratic oasis in the embattled
Middle East.
There is Syria•to contend with. The Syrians
have acted as if Lebanon belonged to them and
they became partners in the tragedies inflicted
on the Lebanese. That Israel also was compelled
to war with Syria is a matter of deep regret.
That Syria should not have heeded Menahem
Begin's plea not to join the PLO in the develop-
ing conflict is cause for concern. Syria emulated
King Hussein of Jordan, who failed to heed the
appeal from Israel in 1967 to stay out of that
war. The result is known. He is out of Jerusalem
and will be kept out of the Holy City, and he
remains the cause for trouble on his borders
with Israel.
Perhaps the Free World has already learned
the lessons that come from Syria. Perhaps the
once heavily-populated city of Hama in Syria
has a lesson for mankind. Under the heading
"The Murder of a City," the New York Times, on
June 5, editorially described a tragedy:
"The ancient city of Hama, the fifth largest in
Syria, has been laid waste. Acres of buildings
have been flattened; others stand in ruins. The
population of 180,000 has mostly fled. Many of
its dead, believed to number at least 5,000, are
said to lie beneath the bulldozed rubble of their
tenements. A city that for 3,000 years survived
earthquake and pestilence, Crusader and
Mameluke, has been made a wasteland by its
own government.
"Hama, on the banks of the river Orontes, was
a city of mosques and apricot orchards. The
Arabist Gertrude Bell wrote of it as the most
picturesque in Syria. Its crime was that last
February, security forces were ambushed there
by members of the outlawed Moslem Brother-
hood.
"The fighting escalated, and in the narrow,
winding streets of the old quarter, the defenders
had the edge. The govenment's response was to
seal off the city and destroy any building from
which it met the slightest resistance.
"Only recently were reporters allowed to in-
spect the wreckage. "Many buildings were
blown in half, while others were apparently
brought down by arttillery fire,' wrote our col-
league Thomas Friedman. Civilians and rebels
perished together. Few neighborhoods were
spared. Eight mosques were blown apart. The
ancient marketplace has been gutted:
"Governments have employed many methods
to retain power. Rarely in modern times have
these included the razing of a major city.
President Assad no doubt aspires to be remem-
bered for other things. History may remember
him only for this."
The guilty in such a murder are the type of
people Israel has to deal with. It is the character
of the terrorists that Israel must contend with.
It is the menace to be eradicated in the fortifica-
tion of liberty. And the liberties aimed for are
not for Israel alone, but for Lebanon as well.
A new chapter is being written in the battle
for human rights, for freedoms. The Western
world, claiming to be democratically oriented,
must_not interfere in that important process.

--

.4.1rA

Divisiveness as Obstacle
in Fight on Anti-Semitism

Ernest Volkman, a newspaperman who is presently a freelance
writer who heads the Paumanok Institute that prepares analyses of
contemporary social questions, has written a challenging book in
which he warns of the rise of anti-Semitism in this country.
He places emphasis on the emergence of a new hatred as a legacy
from the past and as a creation of new forces ignoring the traditional
rejection of hatred in America.
He does it extensively, viewing all available data on the past as
well as in an enumeration of the current tide of hatred in "A Legacy of
Hate: Anti-Serhitism in America" (Franklin Watts Publishers).
Especially challenging is the author's contention that the greater
danger to Jews is the divisiveness in their ranks. He asserts it in his
introductions, maintaining:
"Modern America is not Weimar Germany despite occasional
overdrawn attempts to make a parallel, but it is fair to say there are
some disturbing similarities. One of the more disturbing ones is the
status of the Jewish community. In America, as in Weimar, the
Jewish community has enjoyed power and prestige; when the first
great wave of anti-Semitism struck in Germany, the Jewish commu-
nity was divided and confused, was bereft of allies, and finally
perished. _ _ _ _
"Regrettably, a similar state of confusion exists today among the
modern American Jewish community. Jews are uncertain about the
directions of the new anti-Semitism, confused over what to do about it,
and at cross-purposes about the loss of their allies on the left and in
the black community. Simply put, American Jews no longer seem to
know who the enemy is, and in their groping for answers, they have
entered what may be the greatest period of danger in their history,
especially considering some of the stresses and strains tearing at the
fabric of the American Jewish community from inside.
"Clearly, the Golden Age of American Jewry has come to an end.
It is difficult to say how they will emerge from this latest shadow
threatening their existence; each generation of Jews forges the tools
of its own survival."
While "A Legacy of Hate" is concerned with the acceleration of
anti-Semitic tendencies in the United States, the author devotes his
book to the study of hatred of Jews everywhere and takes into account
that the "scapegoat has been Judaism's traditional role for centuries."
Numerous instances of prejudices, with reference to distortion of
facts by the media, are listed in Volkman's accusatory analyses.
He shows how official sentiment in this country has been tilting
towards the Arabs, especially during the energy crisis.
He takes into account the increased anti-SemitisM among blacks
and he quotes Dick Gregory: "Every Jew in America over 30 years old
knows another Jew that hates Negroes, and if we hate Jews, that's
just even." He explodes at such hate-mongering and he shows how
Zionism has become a code word for Jews. Thus he indicates how
anti-Zionism equates with anti-Semitism.
There is a positive note in Volkman's book. Discussing_ __ie
potency of the new oil politics as practiced increasingly by the Ameri-
can government," which he adds "rests sadly, do the delusion that
piecemeal abandonment of the American commitment to Israel will
blunt the Arab appetite," he declares: "It will not, nor will the new
anti-Zionism bring any more oil for this country. And it will not
impose any sort of peace in that volatile area; Syria will still try to
dominate in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran will still shoot at one another,
Jordan will still fear Syria, and Saudi Arabia will still fear everybody.
And the price of oil will continue to go up. lqw however much support
for Zionism erodes; one constant above all will remain: that short of a
general conflagration the Jewish people will never be homeless again.
Zion, if only as an idea, is a fact of history and no amount of anti-
Zionism will ever change that."

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