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THE
JEWISH NEWS (uses 275-5201
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.
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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 first day of Heshvan, 5744,
the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 6:9-11:32, Numbers 28:9-15.
Prophetical portion, Isaiah 66:1-24.
Candlelighting, Friday, Oct. 7, 6:43 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 6
Page Four
Friday, October 7, 1983
BIG MIDDLE EAST 'IF'
Lebanon is among the big puzzles in the
Middle East. For decades a battleground bet-
ween religious and battling tribes, that nation,
high-ranking culturally and commercially
among her neighbors, suffered miserably. It
now has a cease-fire, and hopes everywhere are
that it will be a lasting one. There were more
than 200 such cessations of warfare in less than
10 years, yet the fratricide continued.
If there could be a coming to terms among
the warring factions, it would be a blessing for
the entire world and a great satisfaction to the
United States whose foreign policy includes a
determination to strive for a peaceful Lebanon.
This has become a matter of great interest to
this country and its aims at attaining and assur-
ing continuity for an end to warfare is a serious
diplomatic commitment.
With Saudi Arabia having participated in
effecting the current cease-fire, the major re-
sponsibility for assuring as much of peace as
possible become apparent. The Arab role is vital
to the issue and must never be ignored. Having
participated in the approach to peace, Saudi
Arabia may have paved the way for other Arab
nations to end their inner animosities and in the
course of events will hopefully be induced also to
end the venom against Israel.
In a most evaluative New York Times
Op-Ed Page essay, Fouad Ajami, who was born
into a Shiite family in southern Lebanon and is
on leave as director of Middle East studies at
Johns Hopkins University School of Interna-
tional Studies, made this interesting statement:
"The Arab states are hardly in a good posi-
tion to complain about American 'credibility.' If
,
Lebanon truly mattered to them, if it was part of
the larger Arab political and cultural order,
there would be Arab peacekeeping troops in
Lebanon — men more able than the United
States Marines to understand Lebanese prob-
lems.
"There was once an Arab peacekeeping
force in Lebanon, in the mid-1970s, but it was
sabotaged by Syria — and the Arab label be-
came a fig leaf for Syrian mischief in Lebanon."
Indeed, if peace mattered to the Arab states
there would be amity among all factions and all
nations and there would be great benefit from a
progressive Middle East. Arab credibility is
amiss here.
Then there is the devilish role of Syria.
Even while the present cease-fire was being
promulgated, Syria was conducting its prop-
aganda campaign, ignoring the realities and
resorting only to attacks on Israel and the Un-
ited States.
That is why there was carnage in Lebanon.
That is why, in an effort to prevent its recurr-
ence, Arabs more than all others must unite for
peace.
But Syria stands in the way. Its partner in
fomenting trouble is the Soviet Union and all
except the troublemakers are the evident suf-
ferers. In the long run, Syria is not really be-
nefiting from hatemongering, except that it can
count upon the Kremlin for friendship and as
the provider of the military hardware that
makes warfare a continuity.
The lack of Arab cooperation in assuring
peace for the Middle East is the "Big If in the
equation.
THE Grdo BAL MRS S
Soothsayers are already providing a hey-
day for auguries of doom. On the current record
there is a prediction that before the end of this
century there will be a conflagration in the
Middle East leading to another world conflict.
Only the naive need be advised what such a war
would do to mankind, none being excepted.
Because of the fear for such resultant ef-
fects from a global war on all the peoples of the
world, it is reasonable to believe that as long as
nuclear power is controlled by reasonable
people a conflict can be averted. Who can pro-
vide an assurance for such continuity of com-
mon sense, even while a war of words keeps
aggravating and threatening?
Nevertheless, the admission is mandatory
that a nasty war is in progress, that there is
international amorality which divides and
threatens and creates tensions not to be ig-
nored.
For Americans, the latest developments
are assuming tragic proportions. It is distres-
sing enough that U.S. Marines were needed in
Lebanon, on the basis of American concerns in
that part of the world which compelled similar
action by President Eisenhower 25 years ago.
The problem was speedily resolved in the ear-
lier experience. Now the drag-pit is caused •
primarily by an antagonism stemming from
Syria.
There is an interruption in the constant
blaming of Israel for everything evil occurring
in the Middle East. Now the attention focused
on the Syrians is based on concessions which
may not only drag out the horrifying Lebanese
situation but may well cause serious damage to
this country.
The evil that dominates the fragile cease-
fire is attributable to the privileged role of Pres-
ident Assad of Syria. He has gained a place in
the case of characters dominating the quest for a
solution of the Lebanese divisiveness and this is
cause for grave concern. A recognized aggres-
sor, her army occupying a major portion of
Lebanon, Syria ridicules every demand for
withdrawal of her troops. It is evident that the
intention of the Syrians is to remain and domi-
nate over the situation in Lebanon. It is a con-
tinuation of Syrian claims that Lebanon is a
part of Syria. Now the aggressor Syria has a
dominating role in peacemaking, a most
ridiculous role in any world situation.
Such is the amorality of the new develop-
ments in which peace is the ridiculed factor and
the United States the victim of disrespect.
Re-Issued in Paperback
Morton's Rothschilds'
Biographically Powerful
When "The Rothschilds" by Frederic Morton was first published
by the Curtis Publishers in 1961 it was a sensation. It depicted the
dramatic developments in the life of one of the most famous Jewish
families in Diaspora history and it had a ring of realism in its applica-
tion not only to the financial influence of the successors as well as
founders of that important Jewish family but also to their political
involvements and the diplomatic roles they played.
Now, as a paperback just made available by Atheneum, that
family again draws wide attention and the Morton story has a revival
of unusual literary interst.
Not only the Rothschilds, but government officials in all the
lands in-which the family operated, Jewish communities, diplomatic
forces are the fellow actors of that group in a dramatic evolvement in
which Jewish issues played their roles.
Naturally, the story begins with Mayer Anschel Rothschild, the
founder of the family firm which became known as the Rothschild
from the Red Shield, and the Jew Street to which the author leads the
reader for knowledge of the emergence of a dynasty and the small
store where the operation began.
The fine sons of the founding father of the Rothschild firm are
depicted in their varying activities in Frankfort, Germany, continu-
ing in Vienna, Paris and London. _
In all instances, they were the developments that also involved
Jewish devotions, as in the case of Baron Edmund de Rothschild who
became a major factor in the development of Jewish colonies in pre-
Israel Palestine, in addition to his having established the wine indus-
try in Eretz Israel, as well as the many other Rothschilds who con-
tinued that interest in Palestine as well as in present-day Israel.
The many developments on a world scale depicted by Morton
include a description of the tragedy that struck the Viennese
Rothschilds when the Nazis assumed power in Austria.
It is the interest in Zionist endeavors that is among the major
elements of importance in this reprinted paperback.
The Rothschilds' friendship with and association in British
foreign financial involvements in the era of Benjamin Disraeli are
especially noteworthy. They include unusually fascinating historical
references.
Theodor Herzl had difficulty securing Baron Rothschild's support
but the support for Zionism nevertheless developed in expressive
fashion both with the Baron's help and that of the succeeding genera-
tion. Morton gives a proper account of these activities.
The dynasty thus depicted is treated and defined by Morton as a
Mishpaha (family) and it emerges not only as a family of Rothschilds
but equally significantly as a Jewishly involved, often devoted, group
whose efforts on behalf of the Jewish People continue to this day.
World interest attaches to the Mishpaha which began in the 18th
Century and retains its fascination to this day. As Morton asserts in
linking the generations and defining the interest still being aroused
wherever one turns by the mere mention of the name Rothschild: "It
seems to remind them that all greatness begins with a dream — and
that their dream began two centuries ago, with old Mayer smiling at
his coins in Frankfurt's Jew Street."
The family unity of the Rothschilds, although the mixed mar-
riages have now become numerous, emphasized the uninterrupted
Jewish interests now especially evident in the Zionist affiliations.
There is little doubt about the Rothschilds being a Jewish family, as
depicted by Morton.