7,7
I PURELY COMMENTARY
Will Time's Judgments Correct Current Tensions?
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
M
any judgements will be pro-
nounced in the course of time
when the present tensions will
be tested.
Presently, Israel is portrayed in the
ugliest terms. The enemies are accepted
as the new libertarians in an area that
needs peace urgently with too many
obstacles to make it possible.
If there were only a semblance of
responsiveness to the desire for amity!
There have been many with a will-
ingness to sit at a negotiating table
with Jews. The moderates in the Arab
ranks may have been frightened by
threats to their lives and they abstain
from action and a willingness to seek
an accord. The Jewish hands are
weakened by the rocks thrown at them.
What will be the result of the test of
time?
There is very limited hope for an im-
mediate or very near end to the violence
and the threat to Israel's very existence.
The time element nevertheless must
clarify the mounting problems. It will
surely explain the issues so that there
will be less bitterness in the treatment
accorded Israel by the media. The
historic factors may, as they should, en-
courage greater tolerance and a
modicum of neighborliness. Perhaps the
elders in the Arab ranks will have a
desire to teach a lessening of hatreds in
their oncoming generations.
One thing is certain Israel will not
be placed on an auction block. Israel
will not be forced into suicide. When
Jews chant "Am Yisrael Chai" they
mean just what it asserts — that the
People Israel Lives!
The current tensions created one
especially regrettable feeling of deep
regret — that aroused in an antagonism
that was evident in the treatment ac-
corded the Israelis in the press, on radio,
in television.
There were the exceptions. A senior
editor of the New Republic, Charles
Krauthammer, in a syndicated column,
challenged the advice offered by colum-
nists and editorial writers to Israel to
"withdraw" from territories where set-
tlements already exist in the midst of
more populated Arab areas. It is the fac-
tual factor in the Krauthammer article
that is valuable for an understanding
of existing conditions. He calls atten-
tion to the situation by exposing
manipulations that have harmed the
status of Arab refugees. There is no
pulling of punches in arriving at a
realistic treatment of the issues that
have otherwise been relegated to much
confusion when Krauthammer
declares:
The Arab countries could, of
course, offer to absorb some of
the Palestinian refugees. But
they do not. Take Gaza. During
its 20-year rule of the Gaza Strip,
Egypt not only refused to ab-
sorb Palestinian refugees, it
kept them stateless and
hopeless. They were denied
passports. They were not even
permitted to travel or work in
Egypt. Even today, Egypt makes
work and travel very difficult
for the one percent of Palesti-
nians who live on the Egyptian
side of Gaza, Egypt certainly
has no intention of absorbing
them.
If the Arab countries had
any interest in Palestinian
refugees, other than as a means
to discomfit Israel, they would
have absorbed them 40 years
ago rather than let them sit in
squalor and frustration. Of all
the displaced peoples of the
post-World War II partitions —
in India, Central Europe, Korea
— only the Palestinians have
been so cynically manipulated
by their fellow nationals and
co-religionists.
How cynically? In the
The Headlines And The Cartoon
Wield Most Persuasive Power
L
et me write the headline and
I don't care what's in the news
column or who composes it." This
may be the wish of every power-seeking
journalist.
The realism of it has been ex-
perienced time and again, and most
often in certain newspaper tackling of
Middle East reports. Prejudices injected
in some headlines have angered and an-
noyed many readers.
There is also the cartoon. That's the
most powerful propaganda weapon.
That's the medium that covers a vast
field. It emphasizes truth as much as
cynicism.
The nationally known cartoonist,
Mort Gerberg, who contributes to New
Yorker and other magazines, proves the
2
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1988
value of cartooning in "More All-Jewish
Cartoons, Yet" (Perigee Books), a sub-
sidiary of Putnam's. It is one of a series
of such books, described as "just as
kosher as the others!'
Gerberg draws upon daily ex-
periences in life, and everything Jewish
becomes a subject to share with the
readers and to incite comment,
Jewishly inspired.
Gerberg doesn't hesitate to delve in-
to Bible stories. He pokes fun when op.
portunity provides the means to either
instruct or ridicule.
The best way to judge and enjoy is
to produce the product. Here is a sam-
ple of an eminent cartoonist's delving
into Jewish experience for hilarity.
mid-1970s, Israel tried to give
new housing to some of the
Palestinian refugees living in
the Gaza Strip. It moved them
out of the camps into more
livable houses nearby.
Whereupon the UN General
Assembly passed relocation of
these refugees and demanding
their return "to the camps from
which they were removed:' The
United Nations, which offered
that advice exactly ten years
before the current round of
rioting in Gaza, has a large stake
in Palestinian misery.
When such definitive articles ap-
pear, contrasting the negative that
damage Israel's credibility, one wonders
if the important people in the media
and the world's diplomats head them.
When the hatemongering subsides
there will surely be a demand and a
compulsion that the truth should have
a dominant role in judging the current
occurrences. The question must be ask-
ed how the claimed 650,000 Arabs came
to Gaza: Who forced them into the area
and why did they become so oppressed
a people who are denied aid by the Arab
nations.
The Encyclopedia Judaica, in its
very definitive essay on Gaza, lists the
population as follows:
In 1946, Gaza's population
was estimated at 19,500, all
Muslim except for 720 Chris-
tians. In the Israel War of In-
dependence, the invading Egyp-
tian army occupied Gaza (May
1948). The town, together with
the newly formed Gaza Strip,
was put under Egyptian ad-
ministration by the armistice
agreement of 1949. The influx of
Arab refugees from the areas
which became part of Israel
swelled the city's population at
least fourfold.
The 1967 census showed that
87,793 inhabitants lived in the
city propel while 30,479 lived in
the refugee camp within
municipal boundaries. Of these
1,649 were Christian, and the
rest Muslim.
Encyclopedia Judaica, which pro-
vides these figures, was published in
1972. Is it possible that the just-quoted
figure of a total of less than 150,000
could possibly have mounted to 650,000
— unless it was by manipulated
schemes of the populations kinfolk?
There is one definite certainty: The
Arabs, the rulers of 20 Arab states, did
nothing to aid them.
The Arab states must be charged
with the responsibility of assembling
them into their state of poverty and vir-
tual seclusion, instead of providing
homes and jobs for them.
That's the tragedy of the
manipulated Gazans. Israel doesn't
want it and is unable to dispose of it.
Egypt will have nothing to do with it
and won't permit Gazans to seek
employment there. The Arab states
shun it. It serves as a modicum for
hatred of Israel. The UN utilizes it to
fan prejudice at Israel. The media invite
accusation of being ignorant of the
history of Gaza and of events that lead
to the unfair treatment of Israel news-
wise. Facts speak out against unjust
treatment of the occurrences with Israel
always as the scapegoat.
Jacob Marcus'
Important
Anniversaries
Annually at this time of year, Jacob
R. Marcus, the prominent adminstrator
of the American Jewish Archives in
Cincinnati, compiles a list of important
anniversaries.
The current ones he has assembled
contain very interesting recollections.
While the Sunday school is far from
popular. it is important to note in his
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