This Week

Jewry's Role in

Summit At Camp David

Human Affairs

THE WALK from page 7

MEET THE DREAMERS
On the land, in the air and on the sea, resourceful Jewish inventors and
engineers have pressed ahead on the cutting edge of innovative change.
Since before the turn of the century, some have introduced practical
technologies that helped transform and structure modern society.

More than 120 years ago, a novel vehicle with
a gasoline fueled internal combustion engine,
electric ignition, carburetor and steering wheel
took to the road at seven miles per hour. The
occasion was followed by three more
strassenwagens . All were engineered and built
by German - born Siegfried Marcus who
helped spearhead the budding motorcar industry with yet another advanced
model--the oldest of its type in existence, today displayed at the Technical
Museum for Industry and Trade in Vienna, Austria.
Engineering feats in other fields earned Marcus more than 75
patents for such developments as telegraphic relay systems and electric
lamps.
Within the same decade, an Austrian Jew
conceived an idea whose realization
David
astonished the modern world.
Schwartz was obsessed with the concept of
.A1k1V-e-
a hydrogen filled rigid airship crossing
continents and oceans. His designs led to the
first dirigible--a cigar-shaped craft whose skeleton and skin were fabricated
from aluminum. Tragically, Schwartz died before the maiden flight of his
brainchild whose construction in Germany was supervised by his widow.
She eventually sold the airship's patents to Count Ferdinand von
Zeppelin who attached his name to her husband's creation. But to
Schwartz's posthumous credit, the era of the dirigible also ushered in planet-
girdling flights and the world's first passenger airline.

Russian-born Hyman Rickover was among the most persistent and
outspoken naval officers in the service. What was not controversial about
the crusader for American military supremacy was his scientific and
administrative genius which gave our nation the world's first nuclear
powered submarine force.
The U.S. Naval Academy graduate had risen rapidly to leadership
of the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission.
However, for prejudicial reasons he remained a rear admiral despite his
seniority and successful 1954 launching of the Nautilus, the prototype
vessel for our atomic submarine fleet. Facing forced retirement in an
inferior rank, Rickover won congressional support in 1973 for promotion
to full admiral.
- Saul Stadtmauer

COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson
Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org

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ficult for anyone who lives outside the
country and is not here day to day to
appreciate what is happening here,"
Platt said. "Middle Eastern culture is
different than American culture and so
is the frame of reference to make a
value judgement about what risks to
take."
Several ex-Detroiters expressed con-
cern about Israel's willingness to make
broad concessions, pointing to inci-
dents such as the burning of two
Israeli buses which had taken a wrong
turn into a refugee camp on July 16
and the reported existence of paramili-
tary camps in Gaza.
Sandy Cash, formerly of Oak Park
who now lives in the Jerusalem bed-
room community of Beit Shemesh
with her husband and three children,
said she was scared by what the results
could turn out to be.
"I don't feel we are making peace
with people we can trust," said the 37-
year-old public relations writer who
came to Israel 15 years ago out of a
commitment to Zionism. "People here
are so anxious with peace at all costs
that they are ignoring the realities ...
That doesn't look like peace to me."
Nevertheless, she said, she knows
that sooner or later there will be a
Palestinian state.
"Is that okay? I think it is
inevitable. I won't start a war to stop
it. I just wish it was run by someone
else," she said. "I hope we can learn to
live together and I hope there will not
be a war."

What To Give Up

Rabbi Tutnauer, who immigrated to
Israel in 1972, said he would be will-
ing to accept some concessions —
including on the issue of Jerusalem.—
in exchange for a feasible final peace
agreement that would be accepted by
the majority of Israelis.
"I don't want my grandson to have
to serve in the army when there is a
war situation," he said simply. "And
what affects my grandson affects
everybody's children."
Platt, 55, a former Likud activist
who is now legal counsel for the
Center Party, said he foresaw a war or
a period of extended violence breaking
out if the process fails. Prime Minister
Ehud Barak should not have entered
the negotiations when the country was
so divided and he clearly did not have
full support for his actions, Platt con-
tended.
"This is not the time to make sub-
stantial compromises. Barak has
pushed us into a corner and raised the
expectations of the Arabs to a danger-

ous level," said Platt, who lives in
Ra'anana._"If the Arabs are sending
out signals that for them land is holy
and they can't give it up, Israel is send-
ing signals that we really don't care
about (the land) and that is a bad sig-
nal to send."
Lisa Hobson, 26, who arrived in
Israel from West Bloomfield last year,
said although she thought it "scary"
that Israel was making taking more
steps towards concessions than the
Palestinians, it is important that the
process continue. She viewed the
meeting of the leaders at Camp David
as a "positive thing."
"I don't think this will be the sum-
mit which makes or breaks the peace
process," said Hobson, who works at
the Center for Jewish Art at the
Hebrew University. "A lot of work still
needs to be done and both sides need
to go back to their public. Whether
both sides are ready for peace, really I
am not sure."

And A Little Optimism

In the end there will need to be far-
reaching concessions, said Ora
Argaman-Barel (formerly Kutnick),
61, who has been in Israel for 40
years and today lives on Kibbutz
Kfar Horesh near Nazareth and
works on issues of Jewish and Israeli
identity and Israeli-diaspora rela-
tions.
"It disturbs me as someone who
lives on the periphery that we will
have to give up settlements in the
periphery, but if it is for peace we
have to make concessions," she said.
Jerusalem is at the heart of the reso-
lution of the dispute, she said, and it
is unclear if any agreement can be
reached on that issue. If not, she said,
there will be no end to the conflict.
"I am more than a little pes-
simistic. I think the timetable for the
peace agreement was too packed. If
Rabin hadn't been killed, maybe these
five years would have been enough.
.But since Israel backtracked then
from Barak's election, the timetable
was much too short," she said.
The real question — regardless of
what comes out of the summit — is
what sort of agreement will be able
to pass the national referendum
Barak has promised the nation, she
said. But if indeed an agreement can
be signed it will be a tremendous
step, she said.
"I do believe it is possible to end
the dispute on paper and then it is
possible that in the next 50 years we
will learn to live, not together, but
side by side," she said. ❑