4 Friday, February 14, 1986

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CANDLELIGHTING AT 5:45 P.M.

VOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 25

One Happy Ending

Anyone with a heart had to have been moved by the scene early Tuesday
morning as a tiny figure walked across a snow-covered bridge from East to
West Berlin, from slavery to freedom. Anatoly Shcharansky, the human
rights activist and leader in the campaign for the right of Jews to emigrate
from the Soviet Union, is today a free man in Israel after nine years in a
Soviet labor camp. His crime: a burning desire to live as a Jew in the Jewish
state.
The U.S. government deserves a great deal of credit for securing
Shcharansky's release, as do the countless people who have kept his name in
the public eye by demonstrating, writing letters to public officials, and doing
whatever else has been necessary to make the Soviet Jewry issue one of
concern to people who care about freedom and human rights.
Shcharansky is an authentic hero, having defied torture and cruelty in
the cause of human dignity and freedom for a decade. He repeatedly rejected
offers for his release in return for a "confession" that he had spied for the
C.I.A. But he never lost hope. Today, we recall the closing words he spoke at
his 1978 trial in Moscow: "For more than 2,000 years the Jewish people, my
people, have been dispersed. But wherever they are, wherever Jews are
found, every year they have repeated, 'Next year in Jerusalem.' Now, when I
am further than ever from my people, from Avital, facing many arduous years
of imprisonment, I say, turning to my people, my Avital: 'Next year in
Jerusalem'."
That 'next year' finally came this week for Shcharansky and we all share
in his joy, and in the joy of his wife, Avital, who fought for his release
tirelessly during the long years of their separation. But we are also aware
that the struggle must not stop with the release of one man. Indeed, it was
Shcharansky himself, speaking on his arrival in Israel on "this happiest day"
of his life, who reminded his listeners: "I am not going to forget those who I left
in the camps, in the prisons, who are still in exile or who still continue their
struggle for their right to emigrate, for their human rights. And I hope that
that enthusiasm, that energy, that joy which fills our hearts today, Avital's
and mine, will help us to continue the struggle for the freedom and the rights
of our brothers in Russia."
One Jewish hero has reached the Promised Land; we must redouble our
efforts to help him in the struggle to bring thousands more home.

OP-ED

Debunking The Debunkers
Of 'From Time Immemorial'

BY EZEKIEL LEIKIN

Special to The Jewish News

the Israeli Prime Minister. It would
Jesse Zel Lurie joined the intel- come as a shock to the Israeli electo-
lectual fray over Joan Peters' book rate that the Peres peace initiatives
From Time Immemorial
(Harper & are likely to be patterned after the
Row, 1984). In his Jewish News col-
umn of Jan. 31, he takes to task 1947 partition resolution. Even Is-
raeli doves would squirm at the
"Jewish liberals" — Elie Wiesel, Bar-
bara Tuchman, Martin Peretz, Jus- thought that the peace agreement, if
tice Arthur Goldberg and others — and when concluded, would be tan-
tamount or closely resemble the
who, he says, "support the peace in-
itiatives of Shimon Peres," yet "were 1947 partition formula.
Joan Peters' basic thesis — that
bamboozled into effusive praise . . . Palestine under Ottoman rule was
of a book that would deny the basis
for any settlement with King Hus-
sein and the Palestinians."
It is patently absurd, if not
Joan Peters' basic thesis
laughable, to lump together the
. . . is basically sound and
Peres peace initiatives with a book,
has not been demolished
any book, no matter how influential;
and it is sheer sophistry to suggest
by her critics.
that From Time Immemorial would
"deny the basis for any settlement
with King Hussein and the Palesti-
underpopulated, that the country re-
nians."
eked of neglect and decay, and that
Lurie's misgivings apparently
its predominantly Moslem inhabi-
stem from the fact that the JWB
tants did not inhabit the land "from
Jewish Book Council had chosen to
time immemorial" — is basically
ignore or disregard his criticial re-
sound and has not been demolished
view of the book and has awarded
by her critics. By the middle of the
the Peters volume a first prize. It is
19th Century, Palestine's population
specious to say, as Lurie does, that
was about 400,000. The Institute for
"American Jewish liberals find (the
Mediterranean Affairs in a study of
book) so attractive." If the book has
the demographic history of Palestine
any appeal to either "liberals" or
headed by Kemal Karpat of the
"rightists," it is certainly more in
University of Wisconsin confirmed
tune with the Likud ideology, which
that Palestine was "underpopu-
by Lurie's own standards, should put
lated." Prior to that time, there lived
it in the "rightist" column.
in the whole of Palestine, including
In referring to the 1947 parti-
some portions of what is now south-
tion resolution, which the Yishuv
ern Syria and southern Lebanon,
and Wokld Zionist Organization "ac-
about 200,000 people, of whom 40 to
cepted," albeit most reluctantly,
60 percent were Arabic speaking, 20
Lurie argues that Joan Peters' thesis
to 30 percent Turkish and Circassian
undercuts the partition option,
and 8 to 15 percent Jewish. "Both
which is presently "under review" by
Israelis and Arabs," the study says,
"are, comparatively speaking, new-
Writer and lecturer Ezekiel Leikin is
comers to the country."
executive vice president of the Detroit
By 1917, however, of an esti-
District, Zionist Organization of
America.
mated population of 600,000 to

.

Stereotypical?'

Local Arab leaders were outraged by the NBC-TV Sunday Night Movie,
"Under Seige." The fictional depiction of an Arab terrorist group based in
Dearborn, reportedly the home of the largest single Arab community outside
the Middle East, worried Arab leaders and human rights activists. Many fear
a backlash against the local Arab community.
Such fears were compounded, however, by Arab spokesmen who used the
NBC movie as an additional opportunity to espouse anti-Israel viewpoints.
Nihad Hamed of the Federation of Islamic Associations demanded that NBC
make a second movie "depicting Zionist attacks and the spying of Israel on
Americans." Those demands appear hollow in comparison to Libyan and
Palestine Liberation Organization threats to bring terrorism to the United
States, the trip by Arab-American spokesman Dr. M.T. Mehdi to Libya in
defiance of President Reagan's embargo, and the investigation that alleges
that some Arab gas station owners in Detroit short-weighted their pumps and
funneled some of their "profits" to the Amal militia in Lebanon.
Mudslinging will not solve local and international problems.
Accusations at any level only deflect attention from the serious efforts needed
to resolve differences.

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