14 Friday, August 5, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Two Books' Differing Views of PLO Murderer's Murder By JOSEPH COHEN NEW ORLEANS — The cops and robbers are long since gone; the cowboys and Indians are of yesteryear. True, the Force rides herd in space, but even so, that is not where the real action is. To look at the rash of re- cent novels, led by John Le Carre's "The Little Drum- mer Girl," one would have to conclude that the most gripping conflict before us today is the one between Arab terrorists and the Is- raeli intelligence agents, with Beirut serving as the nerve center of a combat zone that extends outward to all the capitals of the Western World. In this arena, fact and, fic- tion, history and fantasy are easily mixed. Yesterday's hijacking is transformed into next year's best seller; Motorola car telephone keeps success in hand. The Pulsar II Give yourself a competitive edge. Use Pulsar car telephone like your regular phone. Moke driving time productive. Keep in touch with office, home, clients. Handle emer- gencies quickly. Be in even better control. Advanced Automatic Touch SyStem Easy-to-use push-button direct dialing means speed, safety. Store 10 frequently dialed numbers. Call them with a single push of a button. Many features. sk, Call or write for information, or immediate demonstration! MOTOROLA Communications and Electronics Inc. Margaret Sherk 20300 Civic Center Dr., Suite 310, Sfld., Mi. 48034 Name Business Address City (313) 354-6030 Phone Stcite Zip FACETED SUNGLASSES AVAILABLE IN: GOLD, BRONZE, RED, BLUE, BROWN, WHITE, VIOLET AND ROSE $3950 PRESCRIPTION LENSES AVAILABLE at additional cost Lincoln - Shopping Center METP IPOLITnn OPTICAL 968-8811 26102 Greenfield Rd. Bifocal Special . Regular $54.50 $3950 Available with purchase of any frames at Metropolitan Optical tomorrow's fictional projec- tion anticipates next month's assassination. The most melancholy feature of all this real and imagined intrigue is that as much if not more actual blood flows outside the novels as flows inside them. Given the parallels, it is not unreasonable to ex- pect a true account, that is, a factual history as opposed to a historical romance, of Arab-Israeli intrigue, to read like a novel, to be equally as fast-paced and engross- ing. That is precisely the case with Michael Bar-Zohar's and Eitan Haber's "The Quest for the Red Prince" (Morrow), which describes the efforts, finally suc- cessful, by Mossad, the Is- raeli intelligence organiza- tion, to locate and execute for his murderous felonies the PLO's chief planner for the terrorist unit Black Sep- tember, the Al Fatah group responsible for the mas- sacre of the Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 and other well documented assassina- tions, hijackings, bombings, kidnappings and assorted killings. At a time when, four months after publication, Le Carre's "Little Drummer Girl" is at the top of the best seller lists and likely to re- main there indefinitely, with its pro-PLO sym- pathies, it is good to have a counterview put forward since the garnering of pub- lic opinion is an objective of both books, though one is fiction and the other is fact. Curiously, both have sub- stantially the same "plot," the tracking down by Israeli intelligence of the leading Palestinian terrorist. Though Le Carre's fic- tional Khalia appears not to have been based liter- ally on Ali Hassan Salameh, code-named the Red Prince, the simi- larity of their methods of operation, their elusive- ness, their commitment to the destruction of Is- rael, and their absolute dedication to the PLO cause makes their twin presence a coincidental irony of unusual propor- tions. Hopefully, many of the readers of Le Carre's "heart of darkness" novel — as James Wolcott, writing the New York Review of Books (April 14, 1983), described "The Little Drummer Girl," likening it to "a meditative adventure saga in:the tradi- tion of Joseph Conrad," with one character named Joseph and another Kurtz — will also read "The Quest for the Red Prince" and if swayed by Le Carre' will re-orient their thinking with respect to the PLO's proclivity for terrorism. Though Le Carre holds no brief for terrorism as such, he seems readily predis- posed to condoning the ac- tions of the PLO. These ac- tions unequivocally war- rant condemnation, as Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber make clear, having apparently been given access to Mossad's files. The authors are both Is- raelis, the former being an historian of Mossad and a present member of the Knesset, the latter well known as co-author of a book on Entebbe. It is not surprising that their stance is avowedly pro-Israeli. That stance, inciden- tally, was strongly criticized by James M. Markham in the New York Times Book Review Magazine (July 10). Fol- lowing a now all too familiar anti-Israeli media bias, Markham argues that once the Black September organ- ization ceased its ter- rorist activities in 1973, All Hassan Salameh be- came a pro-U.S. CIA con- tact, subsequently com- mitted to protecting Americans and Ameri- can interests in Beirut. What Markham ignores and, I fear, many of Le Car- re's readers will also, is the simple fact that Palestinian . terrorists initiated the kil- ling. retribution. However de- plorable the violent death of any human being. Ali Has- Would Markham excuse Lady Macbeth? I doubt it. It was Ali Hassan Salameh who chose to live by the bomb, and so he died by it. Reading "The Quest for the Red Prince" has an- swered a question I have pondered for a long time. There is a small sapling planted on the Tulane Uni- versity campus in front of a patio adjacent to the law school. At the base of this young tree there is a bronze plaque which reads, "In Memory of David Berger `66 from his Israeli Coun- trymen and the Jewish Wel- fare Federation of New Or- leans, April 12, 1973." David Berger, after graduating from Tulane, went to Israel where he worked hard to qualify for a place on the Israeli Olympic wrestling team. He died in Munich at the hands of Salameh. Passing David Berger's of his death would ever be brought to justice. He was, in a method well-known to him, on Jan. 22, 1979. Al's Foreign Car Service TUNE-UP 4 Cyl. $3995 plugs & points incl. FRONT DISC BRAKES '$75 incl. brake pads Specialist in • • • • • Toyota Audi Fox Volkswagen and machine rotors Datsun SPECIALS GOOD THRU Honda AUG. 31, 1983 Cars CALL: 548-3926, 548-4160 1018 W. 9 Mile Rd.. FERNDALE Between uvernois & Pinecrest MICH. STOP WORRYING CANINE HOLIDAYS of- fers safe, friendly, qual- ity homes for your spe- cial friend, your dog, while you're on vaca- tion. Let people who really love dogs take care of yours for you. CANINE HOLIDAYS: 827-8652 JEWELRY APPRAISALS 7:41,1V At Very Reasonable ) 642-5575 Rates call for an appointment 30400 Telegraph Road Suites 104, 134 Birmingham, Mi. 48010 (313) 642-5575 - Hours Daily LAWRENCE M. ALLAN President 4 0! GEMOLOGIST DIAMONTOLOGIST til 5:30, Sat. til 4:30