Friday, November 12, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Chaos in Middle East
Woe unto them that cal
evil good, and good evil •
Chaotic Middle East Sinks Deeper Into Uncertainties
Revolving Around Lebanese Fratricidal Factors Which
Constantly Negate the Peace Efforts Thwarted by Hatreds
By Philip
Slomovitz
The exile began on Jan. 21, 1976, when a flotilla
of small boats carried 14,500 Damour residents
north to the Christian stronghold of Juniyah. The
Damouris then were given temporary housing in
about 40 Maronite churches and monasteries.
Eventually, many of them moved into the Sin-el-
Fil quarter of East Beirut, which had been cleared
of its former Shiite-Moslem population by the
Phalangist militia .
In the exile years, the neighborhood of Sin-el-Fil
came to look very much like a - Palestinian refugee
camp, with displaced people living in cramped
stucco houses and young men carrying guns in
the streets . . .
Last June, the Israelis finally drove the Palesti-
nians from Damour:. People from the two began to
go back home on weekends, to sort through the
rubble of their houses or just to sit in the sun in
Damour. Phalangist officials stepped up plans to
rebuild the town and make it a model of how all
Lebanon should live and work in the year 2000. It
is hoped that people will be able to return to their
homes by the middle of next year .. .
. A tragedy dating back some years contributed to the
incidentals in the Ignatius report. The horrors have a long
history and they were especially brutalized since 1970,
when King Hussein massacred thousands who threatened
his leadership, with thousands more, under Arafat's com-
mand, having taken control of Lebanon. Israel's objectives
now confront dangers stemming from a possible return to a
dominance by the instigators of terror. This is a possibility
if the new Lebanese government submits to cliques whose
aim remains Israel's annihilation.
The Hussein role is another aspect of renewed ter-
rorism. There is an admission that without a solution to the
pending problems, the crown Hussein wears will not re-
main steady on the head confused by assassination threats
and failures to come to terms with Israel.
Chaos tragically rules the day. Will there be a policy of
genuine cooperation, with the U.S. and Israel attaining an
accord uncorrupted by horror fanned by terrorism? The
problems are remote from solutions at=-this time. Time and
wise diplomacy are jointly involved in approaching chal-
lenges that temporarily, perhaps, puzzle even the prophets.
The need is to avoid the prophets of doom.
—Isaiah 5:20
Prophecy was more than a mere vision. It often spoke
not only for the generations but also for the ages to come.
Isaiah's words are applicable to Lebanon; and because
of the idle hopes for peace they include the entire Middle
East.
Lebanon is symptomatic of the transpiring, of the
pitfalls, the hatreds, the quest for power and the cheapness
of human lives in the search for domination.
When the story is told in its totality, it now seems
apparent that Israel will emerge as a power that had just
about rescued an entire nation from oblivion, setting Leba-
•
non on a road of proper reconstruction.
ALBERT
EINSTEIN
RAOUL WALLENBERG
There was even the belief that a peace treaty would be
constructed between Israel and Lebanon, two nations
Once again, it was not adopted.
'-
which really had never been at war and were only sepa-
But his name figured prominently for the interna-
rated by Arab pressures and the fears of assassinations by
tional honor. It could well come up again next year.
Lebanese leaders. Now there is a new obstacle to the
The retention of his name for the award recalls the
hoped-for amity: Lebanon's leaders are irritating Israel,
interest Albert Einstein took in one of the most courageous
they are flirting again with the Arab League, there is a
heroes of the World War II era, the Swedish emissary who
lessening of possibilities for a peace that could in the proc-
singlehandedly rescued tens of thousands of Hungarian
ess also secure a more positive response from Jordan's King
Jews from certain death in the Nazi crematoria.
Hussein.
It was as early as 1947 that Einstein joined in advocat-
The chaos that is Lebanon's has been chronicled in
ing the Nobel Peace Prize for Raoul Wallenberg. Einstein,
many ways. Ha Pulitzer Prize is to be awarded for the best
who took an interest in other Nobel Prize nominees, wrote
coverage of the Lebanese tragedies, Thomas Friedman of
to Stalin in the late 1940s: "As an old Jew, I appeal to you to
the New York Times seems to be the most logical candidate
find and send back to this country Raoul Wallenberg," and
for the honor. Approaching it is a series of revealing reports
he added the reminder that Wallenberg, "risking his own
in the Wall Street Journal by David Ignatius.
life, worked to rescue thousands of my unhappy Jewish
people."
Ignatius gave a good account of the background of the
horrors in Lebanon and the current status in a report from
Stalin may have been the. last person to be expected-to
Damour, Lebanon, which was entitled "One Town's Agony
reply to a human appeal. Nevertheless, if the same pres-
Mirrors the Nation." Because his account forcefully mir-
sure were exerted in the 1940s as they are now for the
rors the years of horrors, depicting the sufferers and the
rescue and rehabilitation of Raoul Wallenberg, perhaps the
villainies, his account must be studied and taken into ac-
effort would have succeeded.
count in judging the events that have created so many
Meanwhile, the ranks of Jewish Nobelists are increas-
disputes. A few excerpts from Ignatius' report follow:
ing. Dr. Aaron Klug, the newest in this prestigious group of
DAMOUR, Lebanon — For the Christian
world celebrities, the winner of the 1982 prize in chemistry,
Phalangists of this small coastal town, the circle
is the scientist of distinction who lends honor to the creative
of violence began the night of Jan. 17, 1976.
forces in mankind.
Palestinian guerrillas and their Lebanese Mos-
Dr. Klug's family background evidences an interesting
lem allies attacked the northern part of the town
historic factor in Jewish migrations. His parents were
that night, crying "Allah-u-akh-bar" — God is
When Einstein Nominated
among the Jewish settlers from Lithuania who emigrated
great — as they stormed into the houses of Chris-
to South Africa. The South African Jews claimed distinc-
Wallenberg for Nobel Prize
tian civilians.-The screams of the attackers and
tion as a Lithuanian community, nearly all of the Jews who
Raoul Wallenberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace settled there have been "litvakes." The new Nobel Prize
the victims could be heard a half-mile away.
•Prize.
Four days later, the Christians abandoned
winner is therefore a Litvak.
Damour. The survivors have difficulty, even now,
describing the piles of corpses they left behind .. .
In all, about 300 people of Damour were killed.
By BILL CLARK
Last September, rescuers found similar piles of
in Job 39:9-12, and enjoy its mal to its ancestral home "Nutti," a female. Then, in
' —Holyland Features
corpses in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut.
symbolism in triumphal in Israel, they found all March 1982, the 31/2-year-
(Editor's note: Clark is poetry of Psalms 22 and 92. doors were closed to
This time the victims were Palestinian civilians
old sabra gave birth to
chief curator at the Also, there are a few pic- them.
and the attackers were Christian militiamen. De-
Mike.
spite a lack of hard evidence, many Lebanese be-
Hai-Bar Arava Wildlife tures of this magnificent
,A break came in May
For conservationists,
Reserve.)
lieve that,the attackers included some members of
antelope to be found, such as •1978 when the Greater Los
the so-called Damour brigade — a unit made up'
NEGEV DESERT = Lit- the ancient rock carvings on Angeles Zoological Society the second generation is
largely of survivors of the Damour massacre. The
tle Mike struts around Is- a cliff in the Timna Valley, a offered three pairs of bibli- at least as important as
rael's Hai-Bar Wildlife Re- mere seven miles from cal oryx to Israel's Hai-Bar the first because. it is
commanders of the brigade deny this allegation.
serve like a young aristo- where little Mike lives program. The animals had ph3isicalsproof that a spe-
Regardless of whether survivors from Damour
were present during the Shatila massacre, it's
crat. And that's precisely today in the southern Negev been acqUired by the Los cies is capable of repro-
ducing itself and that the
clear that the abiding anger they and many other
what this newborn desert Desert.
Angeles Zoo through a conservation program is
Lebanese Christians feel toward the Palestinians - antelope is.
The modern world, how- Dutch animal dealer, who
hung over the refugee camp during the two days
He's a biblical oryx, de- ever, has been a great had acquired them from the working.
Today, there are 16 bibli-
scendant . of a long line of danger to the survival of the Riyadh Zoo in Saudi Arabia.
of killing in mid-September. Mr. Fadel, the man
cal oryx in Israel. As little
bluebloods. He's a prince of biblical oryx. In the Middle
whose sister was slain that night in 1976, says this:
World Airways volun-
the desert and a living link East, where centuries of teered to fly the animals Mike grows to adulthood,
"When the Palestinians killed our people, they
to the Bible itself. Indeed, in warfare and the wanderings across North America as a and his second generation
cried `Allah-u-akhbar.' Perhip_sthis same Allah,
this God who is great, took revenge-for the people
the Bible, his kind became of nomadic tribes have con- contribution to Israeli con- produces a third, and the
of Damour . . ."
symbolic of unbridled tributed to the desolation of servation, and El Al picked population swells to two or
three score, Israeli conser-
strength and authority.
Damour sits on a ridge overlooking the
the land, the sensitive oryx them up in New York. .
vationists
plan on releasing
A muscular white ante- retreated further and
Mediterranean, about 12 miles south of Beirut. It
Six months later, in No-
looks like a ghost town now, with rows ofbattered
lope which at a distance further into- the most re- vember 1978, the immig- herds into the desert so that
their kind-can reassume the
houses arrayed on the hillside like empty boxes.
could be taken for a horse, mote regions of the desert.
rant oryx presented Israel station vacated so many
the oryx has two extraordi-
There are so many layers of destruction that it is
During the 20th Century, with their firstborn, centuries ago.
difficult to be sure when a particular building was
narily long, straight and the biblical oryx had been
sharp horns. When viewed driven to isolated pockets in
damaged. The Palestinians pounded the town
in profile, they - appear as Saudi Arabia's Rub Al-
with artillery and rocket fire in January 1976.
,.one.
Then, in August 1976, Palestinian guerrilla
Khali desert — the "Empty
groups established a training camp here; drawing
The birth of 'Mike, the Quarter." By 1973, even
recruits from all over the world. Israeli jets and
tough little desert antelope, those were exterminated.
some months ago was an Trophy hunters, Qatari
naval commandoes attacked this guerilla base
'important event at the raiders and oil rig workers
repeatedly from 1978 to 1981. Last June, Israeli
jets, tanks and artillery battered the town as their
Har-Bar Nature Reserve. destroyed the last of the
forces advanced toward Beirut . . . -
That's because he is the first wild biblical oryx.
of his kind to be horn of an
On a wall in the section of Damour where the
Fortunately, a few
Israeli-bred mother in specimens had been
1976 massacre took place, someone has written a
many centuries.
telling inscription: "This is the brigade of the
preserved in zoos and
crazy."
In antiquity, the biblical wildlife parks around the
For the Christians of Damour, the years after
oryx was well-known in Is- world. But when Israeli
January 1976 were a period of angry exile. Most
rael, and we have many re- conservationists offered
young men from the town joined the Phalangist
cords of its existence. For to buy a few of these so
militia, and they too became a kind of "brigade of
example, we can • read a they could start a pro-
the crazy."
fairly good behavioral study gram to restore the ani-
A herd of oryxes at Ha-Bar Nature Reserve.
Biblical 'Unicorn' Returns Home to Israel
.