12 Friday, October 15, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Sidney Zion Instructs, Entertains in His Read All
About It' and Newspaper Essay 'Jordan, Is Palestine'
Sidney Zion is a well-
known name in newspaper
row. He earned an in-
terested following of
readers who were cheered
by his interpretive writings
— and his ability to get
laughs from the many anec-
dotes he related fascinat-
ingly.
He is sure to get best-
seller rating with his "Read
All About It" (Summit
Books).
To appreciate it introduc-
torily, his brief biography
on the cover of this book
merits reproduction:
"About the Aurhor — A
graduate of the Yale
School of Law, a criminal
lawyer and prosecutor,
Sidney Zion has a unique
career in the newspaper
game.
"'He began as an inves-
tigative reporter with the
New York Post, where his
best stories hit the spike; he
became the metropolitan
legal correspondent for the
New York Times; he
founded his own muckrak-
ing magazine, Scanlan's
Monthly, which was driven
out of business by Richard
Nixon.
"He broke the story about
the Daniel Ellsberg / Pen-
tagon Papers headlines and
was blacklisted for years by
the major media; he came
back with a blockbuster
cover story for the New
York Times Magazine and
was hired as a columnist by
the New York Post; fired by
the Post, he was hired as a
columnist by New York
magazine; fired by New
York, he went back to writ-
ing for the New York Times
Magazine. He lives in New
York City with his family."
What should have been
added is that he is
thoroughly Jewish; that
he dances the Hora; that
he has a sense of history.
Zion's intriguing book of
essays commences with a
75-page introduction which
is really an autobiography.
Then there is a chapter on
"My Jews, and Maybe
Yours," which has addi-
tional biographical data,
about his birthplace in
Passaic, and this is addi-
tionally self-revealing.
The following is a long
quote, but it merits atten-
tion because it covers so
much ground — as does the
entire Sidney Zion saga.
Thus, about Passaic:
"I grew up among Jews
who were witty, dull, angry,
gentle, rich, poor — like all
other nations, as it is said.
The main thing they had in
common was the knowledge
that they were lucky to be
Jewish.
"Until I reached college, I
assumed all Jews felt that
way. For this retardation I
credit my hometown,
Passaic, New Jersey.
"If the Jews didn't run
Passaic when I was a kid
in the 1940s, it sure
looked that way. The
police commissioner was
a Jew, most of the top
lawyers, doctors, and
businessmen were Jews,
the best athletes were
Jews — even the football
players — and the finest
students were Jews.
"The aristocracy was
Dutch, but who thought
about aristocrats in a bustl-
ing industrial town like
good old Passaic? The only
political competition we had
were the Italians, and we
got along great with the Ita-
lians.
"Now and then, some in-
nocent child would come out
with an anti-Semitic re-
mark. Our instructions
from older brothers or
cousins, were to swing
away, to 'kiss first, talk la-
ter.' Unless the kid was big-
ger and older. In which case
we were to report back, and
somebody capable would
take care of the rat bastard.
"This was not without its
danger.If it turned out that
you could have handled the
guy — in the unappealable
opinion of the surrogate
slugger — the older brother
or cousin would belt you.
"In such a milieu, the
idea of being ashamed of
one's Jewish heritage
was beyond the pale. I
didn't worry about Jews
until I discovered that all
around me there were
Jews who worried about
being Jewish. And this
didn't get going in ear-
nest until I was in my
mid-twenties, when I
began spending my
nights in Manhattan.
"Across the years, I've be-
come increasingly suspici-
ous that my upbringing was
unique. Philip Roth lived in
Newark, a half-hour away
from my house. Viewed
through his writings, he
could have been brought up
in Shnipitzik. I never knew
— then — his kind of Jew:
self-conscious, self-
deprecating, always wor-
ried about what the goyim
might think.
"We didn't give a good
goddam about what the
goyim thought. We took
care of the few who had the
gall to bad-mouth us and as-
sumed that the rest were
our friends.
"Obviously, Roth isn't the
lone Jewish writer preoccu-
pied by his place in the Gen-
tile world. Most of them look
at it with similar longings
— whether from Chicago,
Los Angeles, or New York.
The same seems to go for the
majority of Jews I've met
since I've left home. The dif-
ference, I suppose, is thatus
kids from Passaic never
thought we were living in a
Gentile world.
"I raise it here because
so many people — mainly
Jews — have expressed
their disbelief, not to say
shock, at my 'cavalier'
attitude toward goyim.
SIDNEY ZION
I've been accused of ar-
rogance, of chauvinism,
particularly for my views
on Israel and Jewish-
American criminals.
Some say I'm the flip side
of Rothism.
"The truth is, it never
entered my mind. I rest my
case on the people of
Passaic. To Passaic, I'm an-
other Jew from Passaic."
Indeed the Zion book is
both confessional, anec-
dotal, and also historical. In
his introduction, there is
this important reference to
an important name in the
Zionist Revisionist history,
yet little remembered. As
Zion states it:
"Here I was, put out of
business by the govern-
ment, and the word was I
was on the pad! I needed a
cover. I could go back to Jer-
sey and practice law, but
what kind of cover was that?
I'd simply be conceding de-
feat; they'd have driven me
out of journalism.
"I signed a book con-
tract, I was going to write
a book about the New
York Times. 'Against the
Times' — that was the ti-
tle. A 10 grand advance,
but nobody knew that,
nobody ever has to know
how much you can brag. I
told people it was 50 Gs.
"I was going to write the
book, until Peter Bergson
showed up from Tel Aviv.
Bergson is about the smar-
test man I have ever met,
not to say the most courage-
ous and honorable. Raised
in Palestine in the 1930s, he
was in the high command of
Irgun (and considered by
the British their second
Most Wanted man — Ab-
raham Stern, of the Stern
Gang, was first) when he
came to New York in 1939
and established the Com-
mittee for a Jewish Army,
the Emergency Committee
to Save the Jews of Europe,
the Hebrew Committee for
National Liberation , and a
few more such organiza-
tions.
"He brought hundreds of
congressmen to the banner,
and most of all he brought
Ben Hecht, who became co-
chairman and publicist on
all his committees.
"I told Peter about the
book and he said no. Just
like that — no. Why no?
" 'Look,' he said. 'You
were walking down the
street one day and you
bumped into the New York
Times. When Ben Hecht
met us, he said he bumped
into history. You bumped
into the Times. Now they
want to drive you out of
journalism. But wait a
while. They're smart
people. Let the
emotionalism wane, and it
will be as if nothing ever
happened.
" 'They'll understand
that you bumped into
them, there was no
malice. And you'll be
back. It will take time,
but it will happen. If you
write this book you're
thinking about, if you go
after them that way,
they'll never forgive you.
Then you'll be dead, then
you'll have to go back to
law or whatever you
come up with. And you'll
be unhappy the rest of
your life.' "
Indeed, "Read All About
It" is history. It is replete
with commentaries on
Jewish experiences, on Is-
rael and Zionism, on anti-
Semites and also on Jewish
sinners. Therefore, one of
the reprinted essays in this
fascinatingly-instructive
book is the article "Back-
ward to Begin." It is ultra-
significant because, while
dealing with the entire Ir-
gun, the eminent author re-
futes the accusation that
Begin was a terrorist.
Describing the revolt
against the British, which
he describes as "a classic
revolution, the most ex-
traordinary in history," he
tells about all the actions
against the British Man-
datory Power that was
ousted from Palestine. He
then states this defense of
Begin:"Condemned in the
world press as 'terrorists,'
informed against; kidnap-
ped, tortured by order of
the Jewish Agency, it
fought on, but, by order of
Menahem Begin, it only
fought against the British
and the Arabs. Whatever
provocation, Irgun soldiers
were not permitted to raise
arms against fellow Jews.
'Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir,
and their cohorts, took full
advantage: Hundreds of Ir-
gunists were delivered to
the English, most ending up
in African prison camps.
But the edict held — no civil
war."
"Read All About It" is a
marvelous work, and it
gains added attention
thanks to another Zion
piece which appeared on the
NYTimes Op-Ed Page Oct.
5 under the title "Is Jordan
Palestine? Of Course." In it
Zion asserts:
"Is Jordan Palestine?
Yes, but not all of Mandated
Palestine. Israel holds a lit-
tle more than 20 percent of
the Mandate's Palestine,
including the five percent
known as the West Bank
and Gaza.
"Jordan is not only de
facto Palestine because all
who have lived there except
for Bedouins and the King's
family are Palestinian; it is
de jure Palestine.
"Does all of this history
matter? Of course. It's fun-
damental. Palestinians are
a nation without a state.
Jordan is a state but not a
nation. Let Hussein de-
clare himself the King of
Palestine, and the world
will see the problem for
what it is — a border issue
between two nations, Israeli
and Palestinian — who
share the same land. And
border problems get solved.
"When a people believes
its nationhood has been rip-
ped off, nothing can be set-
tled.
"That's why the Re-
agan plan, reasonable as
it sounds, won't work.
Substituting the King of
JOrdan for Menahem
Begin will satisfy no-
body. But the King of
Palestine, or even the
Hashemite King of Pales-
tine — that might do the
trick. Just because it's
true doesn't make it
wrong."
How does- Sidney Zion ex-
plain such a position. on a
much-debated issue? He
does it in his NYTimes
essay in which he states:
.. According to Sir Alec
Kirkbride, England's East
Bank representative, who
later served for years as Ab-
dullah's adviser, Transjor-
dan was 'intended to serve
as a reserve of land for use
in the resettlement of Arabs
once the National Home for
the Jews in Palestine,
which (Britain was) pledged
to support, became an ac-
complished fact. There was
no intention at that stage of
forming the territory east of
the river Jordan into an in-
dependent Arab state.'
"Indeed, Churchill per-
suaded the Zionists to sus-
pend Jewish immigration to
the East Bank on the
ground that this would mol-
lify West Bank Arabs and
thus make easier a Jewish
homeland west of the Jor-
dan. Obviously, the West
Bank Palestinian Arabs
were not mollified; if any-
thing, their appetites were
whetted for the whole of
Palestine.
"In 1946, Britain trans-
formed Palestine east of
the river into the King-
dom of Transjordan,
crowning Abdullah as
king. What began in 1920
as a mandate to turn
Palestine into a Jewish
homeland turned into a
reverse `Balfour declara-
tion,' creating an Arab
country in nearly four-
fifths of Palestine and
leaving the Jews to fight
for statehood against
Arabs on the West Bank.
The upshot: Jordan is
considered an immutable
entity, as distinct from
Palestine as are Egypt,
Saudi .Arabia, Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq.
"How did Transjordan
become Jordan? In 1948, it
went to war with other Arab
countries against the newly
proclaimed state of Israel.
After the truce, Abdullah
annexed the West Bank, in
cluding East Jerusalem.
Since the name `Transjor-
dan' meant only the East
Bank, he changed the name
to the Kingdom of Jordan,
and later became known as
the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan.
"In 1967, Hussein at-
tacked Israel and lost all
that his grandfather had
annexed. It is this land, plus
Gaza, which Egypt occupied
after the 1948 war and lost
in 1967, that has occupied
world attention."
Every essay in Zion's
"Read All About It" de-
serves similar attention —
which, understandably, is
an impossibility for a book
review. But the author and
his book should be known.
He instructs, defines,
entertains. He enriches con-
temporary history. It's a joy
to read Sidney Zion in these
tremulous times.
—P.S.
Standing Guard for Israel
Women soldiers of the Nahal paramilitary organ-
ization are shown at a border settlement in the Negev.