Focus On Israel
P«g«3-THE NEWS-January, 1983
By Kenny Cross
over since writing this col
umn, I have tried to stress
the negative role played by
Jewish ‘‘liberals” in regard
to the American attitude to
Israel. I have thought of
them as ‘‘Luftmenschen”
who have never risked their
necks for their advice
—chairborne generals.
I have constantly been
annoyed by the likes of
Anthony Lewis, whose ar
ticles appear so regularly in
the New York Times. And
now comes corroborative
evidence from a most un
expected source, a Polish
Christian. This letter is
worth many times anything
written by a Jewish witness.
I will say no more. Thank
you ‘‘Jerusalem Post."
Worse Enemy
Than the PLO*
The following letter, written by
PROF. ZDZISLAU RURARZ,
former Polish Ambassador to
Japan, who defected in Decem
ber 1981 and is living in the
U.S., was sent to the New York
Times with a request for its
publication. The request was
refused. The letter was forward
ed to The Jerusalem Post by Dr.
Michael Chechinkski, to whom
it is addressed. Dr. Chech-
inkski, for four years a member
of the Centre for Soviet and
East European Studies at Har
vard University, is now a con
sultant with the Rand Corpor
ation and the author of Poland:
Communism. Nationalism,
Anti-Semitism.
Dear Michael:
Once more I thank you for
your personally inscribed book
and your letter. I’m old now, but
when I was reading your remi
niscences, I had difficulty con
trolling myself. Those terrible
times, when the Jews met the
cruellest fate, which has no
equivalent in history, appeared
in front of my eyes.
My wife and I were just
discussing Jewish and Israeli
matters, prompted by a short
evening commentary by John
Chancellor of NBC television in
Beirut, and last night’s article
by Milton Viorst in the
Washington Post “Outlook”
(“It isn’t the Israel it used to
be’’).
Neither I nor my wife are
Jewish, but we both remember
Jews in Poland from before,
during, and after the war. Even
though both of us are mainly
preoccupied with Polish prob
lems, we are both sincerely con
cerned with the rapidly chang
ing attitude of American public
opinion towards Israel.
We are especially puzzled by
the attitude of Jewish
“liberals” towards Israel,
which is not only childish but
simply irresponsible. It is not
that some expression of soli
darity with Israel is expected
from them; they seem not to
want to know the hard realities
and prefer to live in a world of
delusion.
They would like Israel to exist
as a highly civilized cultural-
scientific community, iiberal-
secular-religious, where all
disputes with the outside world
are conducted by some kind of
"super-diplomacy” (preferably,
of course, with their help), and
where they can spend their
vacation from time to time, and
send various donations from the
U.S.
They do not understand that
if a country is created and exists
under difficult and dangerous
ctrcumstanqes, often the only
way to survive is by military
means. Especially when the
enemy is armed and manipu
lated by Moscow, and conducts
itself through disgusting lies
and deceit below any human
standards. They do not realize
that the enemy understands
only the language of brutal force
and that Israel simply wouldn’t
exist if it acted according to the
prescriptions of soft-hearted
“liberal” Americans.
LISTEN, my friend, they are
a worse enemy of Israel than the
PLO itself. Instead of concen
trating now on the fate of the
country whose existence is
weighed on the streets of Beirut,
they spit at it! They didn’t care
when you were starving in the
ghetto, when in the days of
Holocaust the Nazis killed your
brother on a frozen field. They
didn’t even want to listen to the
reports coming out of Poland
about what was happening to
the Jews.
But this is now history, dark,
cruel, and singularly bloody. I
would rather focus on the pre
sent and the future. Dear
Michael, I’m concerned about
your people. I belong to those
Poles who not only do not har
bour any negative feelings
towards the Jews, but admire
them.
The Jews lived in the
Diaspora for almost 2,000 years,
and the fact that they decided to
rebuild the country from which
Hadrian drove them is not only
admirable, but all the nations
should contribute to the realiza
tion of this goal. These were the
Jews who gave mankind its
most valuable moral code, the
Ten Commandments; the New
Testament also sprang from
Judaism, and regardless of
long-standing conflicts, nobody
can separate Judaism from
Christianity, which together
created one of the greatest
human civilizations. Nobody
gave so many noble minds as
the Jews did.
Now the fate of Israel worries
me. It is too small to be able to
survive alone in a hostile Arab
sea, without help from the out
side. This help comes only from
the U.S. The previous record of
friends of the Jews is not
encouraging. There were the
Germans and Austrians once.
THE CHARLOTTE lEWISH NfWS
Published monthly by*
Jewish Community Center
Harold Cohen, Director
Charlotte Jewish Federation
Foundation of Charlotte Jewish Community
Marvin Bienatock, Director
Charlotte Hebrew Academy
Eleanor Weinglaas, Director
Editora Ann Langaaan A Rita Mond
Staff Monroe Kata^ Liaaa Millman
Copy deadline th0 5th of meha»e§tk
P.O. Box00188, ChaHoUe,
TUappmrmmeteitdrmtUaaim nt Mtmt mtt eamtkaU a katkntk m-
and everything ended in a Holo
caust. Then there was a hope in
Communism, which today open
ly embraces anti-Semitism (so
amply proven in your book.)
I fear that an anti-Israel trend
is growing in the U.S., which
can turn easily into an anti-
Semitic one. Maybe you think
that I’m exaggerating, but I’m
watching these developments as
a bystander and am not, of
course, as emotionally involved
as you. However, I do so very
carefully, and I see a lot of
similarity between the Polish
and the Jewish cases.
WHAT WORRIES me most is
that Jewish liberals are unwit
tingly burying Israel. I’ll tell
you openly, my f/iend, they are
ordinary cowards! Yes,
cowards! They don't know how
to fight themselves and will not
let their Israeli brothers do so.
They do not understand that
small countries having hostile
neighbours must live fighting or
die.
They do not understand that
they are simply hostile people
who will not let one exist. We
Poles and you Jews, however,
have enemies stronger than us.
We continue to exist because we
suffer, because perhaps we are
stronger in spirit and body than
others. We possess the feeling of
pride, and we do not deal with
the stronger one at any price.
Weak people advise rotten com
promises and “higher diplo
macies” and other tricks that in
sult human pride.
The Jews, regardless of what
they did in the ghettos, were
doomed. The Poles, regardless
of the terms proposed by the
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Israel is ‘‘too small to be able to survive alone in a hostile
Arab sea without help from the outside."
Soviets, will be treated hostilely
by its neighbours and the cor
rupt politicians. And what is
sad is that the people with prin
ciples are no longer respected,
and political rogues, dressed in
the feathers of pacifism and
misunderstood humanism, rule.
They only see the bombing of
West Beirut, but what they
don’t see is the Soviet arms and
equipment, the PLO travelling
to Moscow for inspiration, and
its violation of signed agree
ments. These things they
already learned from the
Kremlin.
I can understand how non-
Jewish Americans, petroleum
companies and banks that base
their prosperity on petro
dollars, express a loss of sym
pathy for Israel, but damn it,
who is forcing the professors
and journalists to say silly
things like “Israel is no longer
yesterday’s Israel, it is an im
perialistic one?”
Do they know what they are
yapping about? Do they realize
that pretty soon the Jews will be
charged with “setting the world
afire?” Is it a crime to fight
against an organized power
which wants to destroy you and
is killing your people?
In the USSR, Jews were the
first ones to demand human
rights. Only they have the
courage. Who gave these
liberals living far from any _
danger the rights to swagger
over them? What does a Jewish
liberal know compared to you
and your people who crossed
through hell?
What can he teach you? Life,
knowledge? Israel has problems
with the liberals, Poland with
Soviet agents, who dishonour
our nation.
As has happened many times
in the past, the tragic history of
our nations are running parallel
with the same fate... The single
thing is to stay proud, as na
tions and human beings. And we
will prevail.
Allocations
(From Page 5)
$65,000; Charlotte Clergy,
$100; Federated Council
Israeli Organization, $200;
Cooperative Judaic Studies,
$1,000; HIAS, $1500;
NACRAC, $300; NA Jewish
Students Appeal, $160;
American Jewish Congress,
$250; Jewish Archives, $58;
Dropsie Jewish Braille In
stitute, $400; Jewish
Chautaugua, $100; Joint
Cultural Appeal, $500;
Jewish Reconstruction
Foundation, $100; Jewish
Theology, $500; Hebrew
Union College, $500; Torah
Umesorah. $100.
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