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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 17th day of Tishri, 5744, is Hol Hamoed Sukkot,
and the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 33:12-34:26, 29:17-22.
Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 38:18-39:16.
Hol Hamoed Sukkot
Sunday, Numbers 29:10-28. Monday, Numbers 29:23-31. Tuesday, Numbers 29:26-34.
Wednesday, Hoshana Rabba, Numbers 29:26-34.
Thursday, Shemini Atzeret
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17, Numbers 29:35-30:1.
Prophetical portion, I Kings 8:54-66.
Sept. 30, Simhat Torah
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12, Genesis 1:1-2:3, Numbers 29:35-30:1.
Prophetical portion, Joshua 1:1-18.
Candlelighting, Friday, Sept. 23, 6:56 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 4
Page Four
Friday, September 23, 1983
DIPLOMATIC NAIVETE
Soviet-supported military hardware is
chiefly responsible for horrors that make hair
stand on human heads. A government that con-
dones the mass murder of 269 innocent people
on an aerial flight removed from military in-
volvements could presumably be expected to go
to extremes in the sponsorship of policies that
threaten important areas in the world. The
occurrences in Lebanon are surely chiefly as-
cribable to the encouragement Syria receives
from the same sources that approve of shooting
down a passenger airplane.
Yet, there are some who naively express
the hope that Assad will withdraw from Leba-
non and help end the fratricidal war. It is clear
that Russian inducements contribute toward
the endlessness of a conflict that is not only
fratricidal and internecine but also has an as-
pect of power-seeking in the Middle East by the
Soviet Union.
All of which makes the American involve-
ment so heartrending. The intention was to pro-
tect Lebanon and to assist in that country's
emergence as a democratically-functioning na-
tion. Instead, there is such a multiplicity of hor-
rors that there is little hope for solutions.
Russian-backed Assad is in the lead in fanning
the hatreds, and whoever believes that he can
be induced to end the conflict is as naive as those
who thought Russia would apologize for the
crime in shooting down the Korean plane.
Meanwhile, there is not only naivete but
also media blindness to realities. Two recently
ignored news items point to the shortsighted-
ness in exposing the realities of currently de-
veloping situations. A Reuters report from
Darhascus reveals that Syria urged the Arab
League, under date of Sept. 5, to ostracize Leba-
non and "sever all diplomatic, economic, cul-
tural and political ties with it." Another Reut-
ers report, also dated Sept. 5, from Geneva,
stated that the "United Nations Sub-
Commission on Human Rights called on Iran
today to conform to international convention
and stop recruiting child soldiers for its Persian
Gulf war against Iraq."
Both oppressive developments have a rela-
tion to Israel's agonies. The call for unity among
Arabs to ostracize Lebanon has a direct effect on
Israel's hopefulness for a resolution of the tragic
problems. But from apparent pressures from
Syria the anti-Israel elements seem determined
to combine forces on a destructive basis. This
creates international and American problems
as much as adding to the obstacles for peace for
Israel.
The induction of children into a warfare is a
confirmation of what the PLO has been doing all
along, how the detrimental forces in the so-
called West Bank areas have been using mere
children for warfare. Youths under 12 have
been carrying guns and using them in a war
promulgated by the terror-striking elements in
the Middle East.
These factors cannot be ignored in the
treatment of the Middle East situation. The
conditions are grave. The obstruction to peace
stemming from Damascus and the Kremlin are
sheer warmongering. Using children for war-
fare is disastrous.
Such are the difficulties confronted by Is-
rael, the United States and whatever is left of
peaceseeking. Hopefully there will be an end to
diplomatic and media naivete in treating the
horrors of Middle East problems that are becom-
ing internationalized.
THE WORLD IN ANGER
An entire world, excepting only the associ-
ates in the condemned outrage, is angered and
embittered by the shooting down of a civilian
Korean airplane resulting in the tragic death of
269 from many lands, including the United
States. The indictment for the bestial act has
near unanimous condemnation and the handful
who are giving comfort to the Kremlin are
themselves subjected to a measure of contempt.
The USSR guilt is not limited to the Korean
plane tragedy. It is far more extensive. It has a
wider scope which demands concern in acts that
are causing grave anxiety in many areas and
bear responsibility for the diminution of oppor-
tunities for peace in the Middle East.
It is the Russian support for Syria that
enables Assad's . government to carry on a war
against the present Lebanese government and
encourage the Islamic-Christian crisis.
A Lebanese-Israel agreement called for the
withdrawal of Israeli troops from the embattled
areas and only the Syrian refusal to collaborate
in such efforts interfered with a genuine assur-
ance of peace for Lebanon. It is ascribable
mainly to the Russian involvement in. war-
mongering that prevents the peace. Now it is
the Lebanese government whose very existence
is endangered by the Russian manipulations.
Thus, the Russian guilt has such a vastness
that the latest guilt in shooting down a plane
with 269 innocent people aboard is only a
guideline to an inhumanly-motivated govern-
ment that endangers hope for amity among all
nations.
Volume from Doubleday
`Children of War' Echo
Current Tragic Problems
Roger Rosenthal, with a rich record as a student of world affairs,
as a correspondent of note, devoted 35 days to a study of the children in
the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians, those of Vietnam and --
Ca mbodia, to arrive at reactions among the youth.
- "Children of War" (Doubleday) is among the very remarkable
books of the current era in which a concerned student of present-day
experiences delves into the moods of children, arriving at the senti-
ments which serve as guides to an understanding and appreciation of
the effects of human struggles on young minds.
People vanish, tragedies continue, causes remain on the agenda
in the analyses arrived at. In the course of confrontations, the atti-
tudes reflect the end results — that of a continuity that becomes a
challenge.
Rosenthal's study of the attitudes of Israel's antagonists, whey_
dealing with the Palestinians, is a factor to be dealt with. Yet, in
contrast with the contacts with the Israelis there is a contrast that
cannot be ignored. A Palestinian child of 12 carries a gun; an Israeli
who witnesses the massacre of fellow-children utters a challenge to
God.
Rosenthal's is a psychological as well as sociological study.
Therefore it is also an immensely human approach.
In the instance of his coverage of the Israeli effects, the author
presents a chronological account of what Arabs — the terrorists —
had performed, the cruelties resorted to, the terrorizing and murder of ,
children in schools, in Kiryat Shmona and other northern Israeli
settlements. The hatreds that were generated offer no surprises, yet
there is the evidence of a rejection of vengeance. But the fears remain
and the results and the anger that is part of the eyewitnessing.
War becomes a way of life and in Israel it is an experience that is
part of a tragedy which is an element in such a life course. As Rosent-
hal comments: "I remind myself where I am — in a country of real
people, with a real history. If ever a nation had a right to hardness, it
is this one. Israel itself is a child of war, born in one war, fighting -
another at the age of eight, another at 19, yet another at 21, and the
wars continue."
In a child's room in a kibutz at Manara, Rosenthal sees a drawing
on a wall of Indian tepees. Why Indians? The child explains: "After
the Jews, the Indians are the people I love most. First, because the
white man came and made them suffer and they didn't deserve that.
Second, I love how brave they are. I sympathize with them."
As a consequence of the mass murder of Jews in Nahariya, a child
who was affected by the horror wrote a challenge to God:
"If there is a God, and yes many claim there is, then how does it
happen that little kids get killed?
Rosenthal provides a new
to the concern expressed for
American involvements in the Asian affairs and in . the Vietnam
experiences. The views of youth express the reactions that have be-
come tragic reminiscences for so many and warnings of the necessity
for concerns lest there be a repetition of the heartaches that have left
marks of distress on a generation. It is the warning that there be an
increased measure of concern for the generations to come that enter
into the impressions gathered from the experiences recorded in "Chil-
dren of War."
The realities are on the record, the challenges.are indelible. The
lesson in the study is immense. Perhaps the judgment is that man-
kind remains on trial with "Children of War" the accusers.
-