Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 1, 1983 Page: 4 of 28
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TEXAS JEWISH POST NEW YEAR ISSUE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1983 POSTORIAL PAGE 4
postofiols, opinions, etc
po/toricil__
monitor
New Year: 5744
Rosh Hashana 5744, is a time for world Jewry to take
stock, to reflect on the course of events and assess
accomplishments and the path to be traversed for the
coming year.
Tzj v 111 tHk
Many of the issues faced by the Jewish com-
munity in the past year will remain the same. The
nagging failure of repressive regimes to free Jews held
within hostile lands is again of the utmost impor-
tance. While some success has been achieved, the plight
of the Anatoly Shcharanskys and the Black Jews of
Ethiopia must be fought with greater determina-
tion and brought to higher public awareness.
On the international front, Israel’s search for peace is
continuing. Although the backbone of the terrorist
Palestine Liberation Organization was broken, thanks
to Israel’s “peace for Galilee” campaign, the overall
Mideast peace outlook remains elusive. Arab govern-
ments continue to reject Israel’s right to exist in peace.
Israel is still faced with deep domestic prob-
lems that are also of concern to the diaspora. Tensions
between Ashkenazim and Sephardim must be resolved,
runaway inflation must be curbed, greater subsidi-
zation of medical and scientific research is impera-
tive and granting status in religious life to Conservative
and Reform movements of Judaism is essential.
Jewish diaspora communities also face many tasks,
however none that cannot be overcome. Jewish
education, aliya, strengthening Jewish ties with Israel,
assimilation of Jewish youths, the threat of cults, are
among the issues facing the diaspora.
Undoubtedly, the path ahead will be filled with many
craters and gaping holes that, as in past years, have
endangered the very existence of Jewish life. But with a
fierce determination and the tenacity to perse-
vere, along with a continual commitment, to the
centrality of Jewish life and the State of Israel, and a
dedication to Judaism, the tasks facing the Jewish
community will be overcome.
TEXAS JEWISH POST
Dedicated to Truth, Liberty and Justice
Editor and Publisher........................j.A. Wisch
Managing Editor and Co-Publisher.............Rene Wisch
Social Editor.. ......................Linda Davidsohn
Consultant..............................Steve Wisch
Dallas Manager......... Chester Wisch
Typography...... .....................Wylma Hooker
Graphics...................... ‘ Judy Wisch
Food-Home. /...........................Susan Wisch
Advertising Representatives.. Robert Brimm, Wylma Hooker, Judy
Levine and Judy Wisch
Photographers.............. Sharon Wisch and Judy Wisch
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
*16°° Texas Residents *20°° Out-of-State
*30°° Outside of U.S.
OFFICES
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The Texas Jewish Post (ISSN0040-439X) is published weekly.
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Second Class Postage Permit Paid at Fort Worth, Tx.
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the TEXAS JEWISH POST
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World Council Of Churches
Ignores Basic Point
he World Council of Churches believes
I that the memory of the Holocaust pro-
duces an inordinate amount of support for
the State of Israel. In a resolution issued at
the World Council’s Sixth Assembly meet-
ing in Vancouver, British Columbia, the
Council asserted that guilt over the murder
of six million Jews has “often led to uncriti-
cal support of the State of Israel.. . ignor-
ing the Palestinian people and their rights.”
The Council's statement raises a number
of interesting—and troubling—questions.
Least significant is the question of where
all this “uncritical support” has been mani-
fested. In Israel’s 35-year history it has
been much criticized, much attacked, and
much maligned. There has been fair crit-
icism and unfair criticism. And there has
also been much praise. “Uncritical sup-
port” of Israel, however, has not been much
of a factor—and certainly not in the various
churches that make up the World Council.
Anyone who argues that Israel gets a free
ride in Western opinion has not looked at a
newspaper or at television in some time.
But that is a small point. The larger point
i is whether or not the Holocaust should af-
fect one's attitude toward Israel today. The
fact is that the Holocaust and Israel are
inextricably linked. The Jewish tragedy in
Europe was produced by Nazi barbarism
and by Jewish homelessness. Had Israel
existed in 194Z. had Jews been able to find
refuge in their ancestral homeland, many
hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives
would have been saved. It is true that the
Zionist dream predated the Holocaust by
1,900 years and that modem political Zio-
nism predated it by almost a century. But it
was the Holocaust that convinced the sur-
viving two-thirds of the Jewish people that
there was no alternative to statehood, no
alternative to a place where Jews could is-
sue passports and control ports of entry
and exit on their own. Those who had been
skeptical were convinced by Auschwitz.
Bergen Belsen, Dachau, and TVeblinka.
But Jews were not the only ones who
were convinced. Leading Christians in
America and throughout the world joined
in the call for a Jewish state. (Today, funda-
mentalist Christian churches are strong-
holds of pro-Israel feeling.) Eleanor Roose-
velt was one of the leaders in the pro-
statehood struggle. She spoke out after vis-
* > '•>'
iting a Jewish “displaced persons” (d.p.)
camp in Germany in 1946. She recalled how
the survivors called out to her, how they
fell to their knees and with outstretched
arms cried “Israel, Israel.” They would
consider no other destination. Those for-
mer d.pi’s and hundreds of thousands of
others like them live in Israel today. They
salvaged what was left of their lives to make
a home in the one place where anti-Semitic
terror would be an impossibility. Their chil-
dren and grandchildren serve in the Israeli
army and they, themselves, are able to live
“ordinary” lives.
It is only natural. It is only fair that
awareness of the Holocaust should en-
gender sympathy for the nation that was
established as a refuge for its survivors and
which serves as a living guarantee that it
will have no repetition.
The World Council of Churches seems to
believe that enough is enough. They have
had it with the Holocaust and the guilt it
inspires. If they could only break the nexus
between the Holocaust and Israel, then
Western abandonment of the Jewish state
could proceed at a faster rate—and without
guilt. Forthem, the statute of limitations on
sympathy is 40 years.
But that is only apart of the World Coun-
cil’s complaint. It also argues that sympa-
thy for Israel leads to a concurrent denial of
Palestinian rights. It assumes that Jewish
rights and Palestinian rights are mutually
exclusive, that there can be no sharing. But
it also suggests that there is a finite amount
of caring and concern to go around. To feel
for one group means somehow to harden
toward another. Accordingly it has little
sympathy for Israel in its struggle for sur-
vival.
The Council carries this axiom to amaz-
ing lengths. Its general secretary, Phillip
Potter, is quoted as saying that the Council
had not passed a resolution expressing
sympathy for Soviet Jews because “the
Jews have been able to look after them-
selves. We have to help those who do not
have people to look after them.” Talk may
be cheap—and sympathy may be a com-
modity that is worth very little. But it is a
commodity that, in at least one case, the
World Council parcels out with a teaspoon.
Q
—MJ.R.
I
I
k
i
Israel Can Become Independent
I
BY ELMER WINTER
Chairman, Committee For
Economic Growth Of Israel
[Copyright 1983, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.]
The question is often
asked:
“Can Israel reach a point
where she can go it alone —
become independent of fi-
nancial support from the
U.S.A.?”
The answer is — and must
be — “definitely yes.”
Israel has no choice but to
work towards getting out of
the perilous situation where
the U.S. can apply pressures
against her — thus forcing
the Government of Israel to
make decisions often consid-
ered not to be in her best
interest.
The better part of good
judgment requires us to
question whether the United
States will continue to
provide loans and grants to
Israel of $2.5 billion per year
indefinitely. Domestic pres-
sures at home are in conflict
with Israel’s request for
long-term funding. So, des-
pite the fact that I believe
American economic and mili-
tary aid to Israel is a bargain
— particularly when one
compares what it costs the
United States in men and
money to protect Western
Europe — an intensive cam-
paign should be undertaken
now to make Israel financial-
ly independent of the U.S.
U.S. Ambassador to Isra-
el, Sam Lewis, recently
cautioned that “Israel today
is far too dependent on the
U.S. for Israel’s own good
and also for the good of the
U.S.” He proposed that
Israel try to work its way
out of “the onus of the
balance of payments gap
which makes Israel too
dependent on the U.S. ap-
propriations process for
either side to be comfort-
able.”
After studying the growth
of the Israeli economy in
some detail, interviewing its
leaders of commerce and
industry and talking with its
leading governmental econ-
omic officials, I believe that
Israel can celebrate its
“Economic Independence
Day” on December 30, 1990.
To make this possible, a new
kind of cooperation between
the two countries will be
necessary: doing it with the
Israelis rather than for
them.
What is needed, then, is a
matching effort, with input
by both countries. The key
to this cooperation lies, as I
see it, in the private sector.
American corporations must
be encouraged to establish
manufacturing plants in
Israel, investing their capi-
tal (together with Israeli
entrepreneurs) and pooling
their know-how. The aim
would be to increase the
number of U.S. companies
with manufacturing branch-
es in Israel from 150 to more
than 200 by 1990.
The increased production
See Israel Page 22
I
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 1, 1983, newspaper, September 1, 1983; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth755475/m1/4/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .