28 Friday, June 25, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Israelis in the Midst of a War Gather Relief Aid for Lebanon
(Continued on Page_1)
ings and otherwise used
who thought that Prime (some say abused) the
Minister Begin made a mis- privilege of free speech to
take in ordering the inva- try to halt Israeli military
sion, demonstrated in the operations. Where else in
streets, painted the gov- the world, in the midst of a
ernment
press
headquar-
gans, wrote
critical
articles critical war, could all this
ters with denunciatory slo- have been permitted?
Israel takes the free-
which the newspapers doms pretty seriously.
printed, held protest meet- Most startling was a
THANK YOU
MOM & DAD (Rose & Irv)
MOM & DAD (Sonia & Art)
For our
wonderful wedding
Love
Sheila and Lyle
A
N
T
•
S
P
D
E
R
•
F
L
A
quarter-page ad in Israeli
papers denouncing the
invasion signed by 100 of
West Germany's out-
standing scholars,
theologians, journalists
and politicians. It said Is-
rael's military action in
Lebanon had "destroyed
the hope for peace in the
region through the esca-
lation of violence." It
ended: "We fully recog-
nize the historical re-
sponsibility of the Ger-
mans toward the Jews,
however this cannot
mean that we can sanc-
tion taking rights of other
people."
There have been protests,
also, from many Israelis.
Rabbi Manahem HaCohen,
a Labor member of the
Knesset, went public with
this statement:
"To me these sad times
are not days of glory . . . Can
we possibly stand silent in
the face of uncontrolled
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bombing of civilians?"
The Israeli Peace and
Equality Movement took
newspaper ads saying:
"This war from the first
shot was unnecessary. The
PLO cannot be destroyed by
the invasion of Lebanon and
the Palestinian problem
cannot be solved by the de-
struction of the PLO."
A group of university
professors banded to-
gether as the Committee
Against War in Lebanon
and demonstrated in
front of the prime minis-
ter's house at the height
of the war.
The most bitter blast
came from Gideon Rafael,
distinguished Israeli dip-
lomat who was given two
full columns in the
Jerusalem Post to attack
the prime minister as "the
defensive minister."
Meanwhile, Israel has a
problem with the prisoners
it has taken. Among the
prisoners are terrorists
from Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka, Austria, Jordan,
Somalia, Egypt, Germany,
Yemen, Kuwait, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia, Libya, Cuba,
Mali, Niger, India, Korea,
Belgium, Turkey and Italy.
Also some members of West
Germany's Baader-Meinhof
Gang of terrorists.
One reason Israeli mili-
tary men were not eager to
take Beirut was that they
knew they would probably
acquire another 10,000 or
more unwanted PLO pris-
oners.
Then there is the legal
problem. The Geneva Con-
vention defines a prisoner of
war as someone serving in
uniform in the army of a
"state," and says he may not
be put on trial and is
entitled to numerous other
privileges.
But these prisoners of war
have no state, one of their
war aims was to acquire one
by taking over Israel and
_asking what Jews survived
to please leave.
In contrast with Israel's
6,000 or more Arab pris-
oners, the PLO holds one or
two Israel Air Force pilots
and perhaps some of the 23
missing Israeli soldiers. The
fear is that the PLO will use
these Israelis as hostages
for the return of all 6,000 of
their men.
Once released, the ter-
rorists could and undoub-
tedly would try to start the
whole thing over again.
* * *
-
Every war is full of sur-
prises, especially this one.
These were the principal
surprises for this corre-
spondent.
Surprise 1: That the
1,500,000 Arabs on the
West Bank and in Gaza, so
many of whom were
thought to favor the PLO,
made no attempt to create
chaos within Israel, while
the PLO was being ground
to dust in Lebanon. (There
were just two incidents of
stone-throwing by malici-
ous Arab boys.)
Surprise 2: That the 60
million Arabs in countries
immediately surrounding
Israel lifted not a finger to
help their brother Arabs in
the PLO, except the Sy-
rians, who had no choice be-
cause they were already in
Lebanon when the war
started.
hundred
(Several
young Iranian volunteers
did arrive in Syria last
week. But Iranians are
not Arabs and several
hundred teen-agers ar-
riving in Damascus is a
far cry from Khomeini's
offer to put Iran in the
war on the side of the
PLO. A PLO spokesman
told a Kuwait newspaper,
"The PLO affiances with
some Arab states were
merely pieces of paper.")
Surprise 3: That the third
world was so busy with its
own problems that it po-
litely looked the other way
when an SOS came from the
PLO. (I am sure some Afri-
cans and Latin Americans
are actually delighted that
they-now have an excuse for
not submitting to further
PLO intimidation.)
Surprise 4: That all the
other countries that have
given some form of diploma-
tic status to the PLO, under,
duress, (104 countries in all)
lent not even vocal support
to the PLO in its hour of
crisis.
Surprise 5: That Israel
planes were able to down
more than 85 Russian-made
Syrian MiGs in dogfights in
which not a single Israeli
plane was lost.
Surprise 6: That the Is-
raeli Navy did such a
magnificent job in the
combined sea, land and
air operation, and thus
far has received not
nearly the deserved cre-
dit.
Surprise 7: That Ameri-
cans are perhaps not aware
of how much the United
States benefitted from this
short war.
What the U.S. military
attaches stationed in Israel
will find out about the
Soviet Union's latest and
most powerful tank, the
T-72, when they study the
operation reports of the Is-
rael tank men who knocked
out so many T-72s, will be
worth all the money the
U.S. will give or lend Israel
during the next year. Also,
we should be pleased at
finding out how superior
our F-15s and F-16s are to
the Russian MiGs in com-
bat.
Surprise 8: The amazing
performance in battle of the
Merkava, the Israeli-made
tank, which came through
its baptism of fire with fly-
ing colors.
Surprise 9: That the
quarter-of-a-million
Druze in Lebanon, many
of whom fought
alongside the PLO in
Lebanon's civil war, did
nothing to resist the Is-
raelis when this war
started. Instead, when
the invading soldiers ar-
rived, the Druze
everywhere greeted them
with cheers, flowers, cof-
fee, candy and embraces.
Surprise 10: That the
PLO, according to the Is-
raeli chief of staff, actually
had in excess of 500 Soviet
tanks, instead of the 100 to
150 we had all thought they
had.
I was not surprised that in
the stress of battle the Is-
raeli soldiers behaved as I
have never known soldiers
in any other country to be-
have. Not surprised, be-
cause I have seem them in
their other wars.
Looting is endemic to
military men engaged in
killing. Personal morality
generally breaks down
completely. But the Israeli
soldier is unique in the
world. In five wars I hay- ---'
seen no looting, heard of
tle looting. The only case
thus far reported in this war
was of the lieutenant
colonel who somehow ob-
tained six video tapes in
Lebanon and tried to smug-
gle them back into Israel. (I
am sure he will be severely
punished.)
Truth is the first casu-
alty in any war. It's been
that way in every war I
ever reported. Here are
some examples from this
one:
The claim: The Red Cross
and Red Crescent told the
press that 600,000 people in
Lebanese coastal towns and
cities were made homeless
by the war — a very impres-
sive figure for fund-raising
purposes.
The truth: The total popu-
lation of the coastal towns
and -cities was under
300,000. How can six out of
every three be homeless?
The Knesset was told the
correct figure is 70,000.
The claim: - Lebanese
police in Beirut told report-
ers that 9,583 Lebanese
were killed by Israeli shel-
ling and bombing.
The truth: That figure
is believed to be more
than double the actual
number.
The claim: The New
York Times on June 10 re-
ported in a front-page story
under a two-column head-
line that Syria had shot
down the previous after-
noon 19 Israeli F-15s and
F-16s.
The truth: Israel lost not a
single plane that day. Dur-
ing the entire war Israel lost
no F-15s or F-16s. Her total
aerial loss was two helicop-
ters and one old A-4
Skyhawk.
The claim: Soviet radio in
an overseas broadcast said
the PLO had sunk a large
Israeli naval vessel.
The truth: Israel lost no
large naval vessel in any of
its operations.
The claim: The Sunday
Times of London in a
front-page story, report-
ing on what it called an
amazing new French
missile, the Exocet, usr -
by the Argentinians
sink British ships,
suggested, without any
proof, that the Israelis
had trained the Argenti-
nians in the use of the
weapon.
The truth: Two days later
another paper, the Daily
Times, called the story false
and said the Israelis had
had nothing to do with it.