An Expose of the Arab Lobby and Its Immensity How Israelis Avoid Harm to Civilians Mobilizing THE JEWISH NEWS A Weekly Review Commentary Page 2 to Break Down Emerging Walls of Hatred of Jetuish Events Editorial, Page 4 Copyright VOL. LXXXII, No. 1 for Truth © The Jewish News Publishing Co. 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833 $15 Per Year: This Issue 35c September 3, 1982 U.S. Proposal on Settlement, Jerusalem Raise Opposition Christianity's Role Duty to Be Just Role of the Vatican Defined by Springer By AXEL SPRINGER (Editor's note: Axel Springer, the leading German editor and newspaper publisher, has written an in- dictment of bigotry, a review of attitudes toward Is- rael in the current Lebanese situation, with a com- ment on the role of the Vatican and an appeal for justice that reads like a Christian confessional. His article, which was featured in the Springer-edited Die Welt, published in Berlin, Aug. 18, under the title "Die Pflicht der Gerechtigkeit," is presented here in the English translation, "Justice as a Duty.") More and more often the Is- raelis are accused of making it difficult for their friends to stand by them. Yet even those who do not believe they are able to take sides in the fateful Lebanon con- flict should at least recognize that justice is a duty. This is something that the Vatican should be predestined for. Since the visit to Rome of Golda Meir over 10 years ago — when her meeting with Pope Paul VI led to mutual ill feeling - -- there have been serious and AXEL SPRINGER encouraging attempts to im- prove the relationship and to dissolve both historical and present tensions. John Paul II has done more in this direction than ot er popes before him. In Auschwitz he recalled that the Jewish people could trace their origins back to Abraham, "the father of our faith." Yet still the Vatican does not recognize Israel. It is argued that consideration for the Christians in the Arab countries would not allow such a step to be taken. This argument may be convincing when it is seen solely in terms of Vatican diplomacy. If, how- ever, one applies moral standards to this re- fusal, expediency seems to outweigh the Christan- ethical preCepts in a way that is problematical. This (Continued on Page 5) Sparkling with constantly reiterated assurances to Israel that he insists upon its security, President Ronald Reagan nevertheless aroused strong opposition to his new proposals for what he termed an approa_ch to a lasting peace, in his televised Middle East policy address Wednesday evening. The Israeli Cabinet, meeting early Thursday morning, rejected the plan on several grounds, primarily the insistence upon a freeze on settlements'. While the opposition Labor Party is yet to act on the issue, it became evident in advance that the Reagan proposals stirred near unanimity in Israel, primarily because there has been little if any support from Arab quarters on the issue of Israel's protective status on the border with Jordan or recognition of Israel by the Arabs. _ The Reagan plan emerged, in the Israeli view, as unworkable because the proposed Jorda- nian linkage with the administered territories was not substantiated, Israeli leaders having only a few days earlier suggested that Jordan is already the Palestinian state. Nevertheless, the Reagan opposition to a Palestinian state as such was in itself viewed as a positive note because it deflated the repetitive talk about Palestinianism. Major in the opposition to the Reagan proposals is his reference to Jerusalem. While he emphasized the undisputed fact that Jerusalem is and cannot be a divided city, he proposed negotiations on its status. The Israeli declaration, supported by Jewish attitudes everywhere, is that the status of Jerusalem is not negotiable. On that score the Reagan statement fell flat at once. . There is the possibility, it is viewed in some quarters, that the Reagan policy may tend accomplish what some enemies o Israel hope for — a split in Jewish ranks because there are some sen- timents among Jews opposing ex- tension of the settlements prograp...- But even this is deflated because Ali7 From JTA and media dispatches Israel Labor Party ranks there NEW YORK — Tributes from throughout the world have been dominant sentiment rejecting th . received by Zionist organizations in tribute to Dr. Nahum pressures against settlements and Goldmann, the fiery and often controversial Zionist leader who died the intention to harm Israel on that Sunday in West Germany. He was 87. issue. A partial list of the Jewish organizations which officially mourned his death included the American Section of the World The Reagan plan was preceded by a Zionist Organization Executive, the letter to Menahem Begin explaining it. Conference on Jewish Material It outlined exactly what was to be in his Claims Against Germany, the World proposals. Jewish Congress, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the It created anger when its contents American Jewish Congress and the were revealed. Thereupon the President American Jewish Committee. sent another, additionally explanatory Dr. Goldmann was buried letter, and he hastened the announce- Thursday on Mount Herzl among the ment that he would speak Wednesday founders of the state of Israel. night. He had planned originally to de- According to a hospital liver his address a week or two later. spokesman, Goldmann came to President Reagan's linkage of Jordan the small Bavarian village of Bad Reichenhall for a cure. He was and the administered territories was hospitalized a week before his taken in Israel to be a new American NAHUNI GOLDMANN World Tributes Mourn Death of Dr. Goldmann (Continued on Page 15) (Continued on Page 13) • • • Menahem Begin Responds to a French Jewish Critic MENAHEM BEGIN JERUSALEM (JNI) — The following excerpts respond to a letter from Marek Halter, noted Jewish painter and author living in Paris, which was reprinted in Maariv on Aug. 18. In his original correspondence, Halter denies Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin the right to speak in the name of all the Jewish people since, Halter feels, Begin emphasizes Israel's need for security to the exclusion of what Halter considers her equivalent need for moral standing. Begin replied: "I was happy to read that you were saved from the Nazis, but I was not pleased by the announcement that after you grew up and matured, you stayed in the Diaspora. It is general knowledge that you could have made aliya to Israel after the establishment of the state . . . Apparently you prefer to live on foreign soil . . . So be it." Begin continued, "From me, the Prime Minister of the democratic Jewish state, you deny the right to say anything about you, while accepting for yourself the right to determine why someone was elected to be prime minister of a state of which you are not a citizen. Hence comes your knowledge as to which Israelis 'understand the interests of the state.' From this sentence it is clear to me that, in your view, the Prime Minister of the Jewish state is not among those who understand its interests. You apparently understand them better than I do. Good luck to you, sir. "And now to the matter itself . . . I did not, as you wrote, show a lack of good manners towards President Francois Mitterrand. The simple truth is that our friend Mr. Mitterrand — and I continue to call him a friend — committed a terrible and shocking sin against the Jewish people everywhere. I heard his words in Hungary with my own ears: 'I did not agree to Oradour in France and I will not agree to Oradour in Beirut.' .. . The ugly anti-Semitism now raging in France, as it raged in the days of Dreyfus, results from awful talk about Oradour in Beirut. (Continued on Page 7) FRANCOIS MITTERRAND