Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israel*
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — F
Vol. XL
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JULY 2, 1965
NO. 27
Israel’s Nuclear Hole Bothers
Kennedy, Arms Control Chief
WASHINGTON — (JTA)
NCR AC Urges vigilance on
Federal Aid To Education
Israel and India were cited by
both Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and
a key Administration disarm
ament figure this week as the
two nations of greatest immedi
ate concern to United States of
ficials concerned about prolifer
ation of nuclear weapons.
Sen. Kennedy charged in a
Senate speech that the two coun
tries already possessed “weapons-
grade fissionable material and
could fabricate an atomic device
within a few months.” He added
that there could be no stability
anywhere when nuclear weapons
might be used “between Arabs
and Israelis over the Gaza Strip."
William Foster, director of the
Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency, similarly pinpointed
Israel and India, in an article in
the new issue of “Foreign Af
fairs,” which was obviously
cleared by the Administration
before publication.
Sen. Kennedy declared that
Israel and Egypt each had been
suspicious of the other “and
further Israeli progress would
certainly impel the Egyptians to
intensify their present efforts.”
WASHINGTON — (JTA) —
The State Department is quietly
preparing to offer Egypt a mas
sive new “Food for Peace” pro
gram following the release of
$37,000,000 in surplus food to
Egypt, it was learned here.
High Administration sources
indicated that State Department
assertions that the conduct of
President Nasser’s regime had
improved in the last six months
were a pretext to justify approval
of the $37,000,000 shipment be
fore the June 30 expiration date
of the authorization.
President Johnson was charac
terized as preoccupied with the
Viet Nam situation and with
having delegated White House
adviser McGeorge Bundy to deal
with the issue. Mr. Bundy re
portedly recommended adoption
by the President of the State
Department position which sought
to mihitnize negative aspects of
the Nasser regime’s behavior. The
State Department view was that
United States influence in Cairo
would be strengthened through a
large new program of food and
development loans.
In a related development, it
was learned that United States
military training to the armies
of Syria and Iraq, in addition to
arms and training for other Arab
forces, will be provided in the
fiscal year 1966. This information
emerged when the House Appro
priations Committee made public
Commander Ralph Plofsky of
the Jewish War Veterans of the
USA. said this week that it
would be “absurd for the United
States to give
Egypt further
hand - outs of
American food
in view of evi
dence that Egypt
is selling its own
f o o d to two
C o m m u n i s t
countries now
under American
jconomic boy- Ralph Plofsky
cottt restrictions.”
Commander Plofsky said it
was apparent that Egypt violated
“the letter and the spirit of its
He added that Israel “can make
nuclear device within a couple of
months and weapons shortly
thereafter. That is the kind of
danger that confronts us.”
He urged immediate initiation
of United States-Soviet talks, to
include other nations with nu
clear capability of potential, to
formulate a non-proliferation
pact requiring pledges from na
tions like Israel not to acquire
or develop such weapons in re
turn for a guarantee against nu
clear aggression or blackmail.
He urged creation of nuclear-
free zones and said that if these
succeeded, Israel and neighbor
ing states, which might not be
covered, should be asked to make
the same commitment.
Foster wrote that one side in
dispute like the Arab-Israel con
flict could not be expected to
forego acquisition of nuclear
weapons if the other side ob
tained such arms.
The White House press office
said it was pleased that Sen.
Kennedy shared President John
son’s concern on the issue and
that the President himself would
speak on the matter soon.
recent testimony of the Defense
and State Departments.
Gen. R. J. Wood testified that
the 1966 program for Syria would
be entirely training help. The
U.S. Military Assistance program
will pay the cost of training
Syria’s Soviet-equipped forces.
Syrians will be trained in the
United States in military special
ists schools.
Iraqi militiary training will be
provided and instruction of Iraqi
Air Force personnel will be
broadened. Programs aimed at
modernizing the Jordanian army
will be continued. Military planes
and other arms, plus training,
will be provided Saudi Arabia.
The decision to release the last
of the current wheat authoriza
tions to Egypt drew sharp criti
cism from Sen. Ernest Gruening,
Alaska Democrat, and Rep. Leon
ard Farbstein, New York Demo
crat. Sen. Gruening said that the
authorization showed that the
State Department “is again up to
its old game of appeasing direc
tor Nasser.” He said Nasser was
doing “more to destroy the Mid
dle East peace” than any other
man, waging aggression in Yemen
and constantly threatening to
destroy Israel.
The State Department, com
menting on the decision, said
that “the Egyptian Government
has undertaken to enter into
discussions with us on outstand
ing differences.”
aid agreement with the United
States by diverting 40 per cent
of its rice crop from its own food-
short Egyptian population, sell
ing it abroad to Communist
states unable to purchase food
directly from the United States—
and making up the deficit with
surplus commodities from Amer
ica.”
The veterans leader said that
“for the United States to play
the role of ‘Uncle Sap,’ while
American soldiers are dying in
the struggle against Iied-Chinese
assisted Communists, is beyond
comprehension. It is very possi
ble that the rice sold to Red
China by Egypt ended up in
Hanoi and feeds the North Viet
Namese forces.”
ATLANTIC CITY, N J. (JTA)
—The National Community Re
lations Advisory Council,— coor
dinating body of eight national
Jewish organizations and 76 local
community relation agencies —
completed its annual plenary
session here Sunday with a warn
ing to the American Jewish Com
munity that it must exercise un
remitting vigilance to insure that
the principle of separation of
church and state is not breached
in the implementing of the fed
eral aid of education program
and the war on poverty.
At the same time it adopted a
resolution appealing to all fed
eral, state and local officials in
volved in expenditure of federal
funds for elementary and second
ary school education under the
new federal aid program to take
adequate measures to “assure
that state constitutional prohibi
tions against aid to religious in
stitutions are not violated.” It
also urged them to “exercise
scrupulous care against involve
ment of religious groups in cur
riculum planning or administra
tion of public school programs.”
The resolution—on a subject
which has created a great deal
bf friction between Orthodox
and other Jewish groups which
welcome federal aid to religious
schools, and Jewish agencies
which had feared the breaching
of the separation of church-state
principle—was acted on here
with a remarkable degree of un
animity. It expressed recognition
of the need for federal aid to
education but stressed the need
for alertness to “any steps which
would impair the principle of
separation of church and state,
promote religious divisiveness
and strengthen sectarian educa
tion at the expense of improving
education equally available to all
children.”
At the same time the confer
ence reminded American Jewry
that its entire community rela
tions program for the coming
year must be envisioned within
the framework of the struggle
for racial equality. Deliberations
at the conference reflected the
shift in emphasis from the strug
gle for civil rights to the broader
arena of equality of opportunity.
President Johnson, in a mes
sage to the conference, said
“America is today meeting a chal
lenge much broader than that of
the civil rights of man. Citizens
are striving to eliminate the
curse of poverty to improve edu
cational possibilities for youth
and to reduce unemployment. We
are meeting the challenge of hu
man rights and we are working
progressively to create a good
life.” He praised the NCRAC for
its role in this activity and ap
pealed “to all of you to sustain
and deepen your commitment as
we work together in this great
task "
Tn a recommendation dealing
with the problem of nraver and
Bible reading in the public
schools the guide lines urged a
survey to establish the extent to
w'hich the Supreme Court rulin'’
outlawing prayer in the ntiblie
schools was being observed and
to establish the nature of non-
compliance and evasion in order
to eliminate unconstitutional
practices.
After protracted discussion of
the condition of Soviet Jewry the
conference adopted a resolution
calling on “men of good faith in
all lands to join with us in a
concerted demand utxrn the So
viet Government to put an end
to its religious and cultural per
secution of Soviet Jewry.” The
resolution urged the United
States Government to “pursue
this matter vigorously through
through various diplomatic chan
nels and within the United
Nations.”
The resolution also expressed
confidence that men of good will
everywhere will join with us in
calling on the Soviet authorities
to end the restrictions and de
privations that deny to Soviet
Jewry the rights that are granted
to other nationalities and other
major religious bodies in the
USSR.”
The resolution cited recent de
velopments in the Soviet Union
which it said suggested an
amelioration of the situation of
Soviet Jewry. It concluded, how
ever, that “these changes have
not affected any fundamental
changes in the tragic situation of
Soviet Jewry nor do they in and
of themselves justify the hope
that the new Soviet leadership are
removing the barriers of dis
crimination that apply to Jews.”
The conference also adopted a
resolution calling on Congress to
“complete the unfinished business
it began in 1949” and ratify the
United Nations Genocide Con
vention It urged President John
son and the U. S. State Depart
ment “to express more affirma
tive leadership” in pressing the
Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee to schedule early hearings
on the Human Rights treaties on
forced labor, slavery and the
political rights of women and to
report the Genocide convention
out of committee without delay
The conference also urged the
89th Congress to “play the his
toric role of eliminating the
shameful national origins quota
system” by passage of the admin
istration sponsored Hart-Celler
immigration bill.
In a resolution on the Middle
East adopted with little dis
cussion and virtual unanimity the
conference declared that Egyp
tian President Nasser’s campaign
for hegemony in the Arab world
and his hostility to Israel as well
as Arab water diversion activities
threatened the peace of the
world.
After describing these Arab ac
tivities, the resolution affirmed
that “under these circumstances
it is clear that Israel must be
provided the necessary military
strength to effectively deter ag
TEL AVIV, — (JTA) — Seven
Israeli Arabs, most of them fish
ermen, have been arrested on
charges of spying for Egyptian
intelligence, it was announced
here last week by a police spokes
man. The spokesman said that
one of the suspects, identified
only as Sabage, committed sui
cide at the Acre police station
after telling police about the
group’s espionage activities and
leaving a letter to David Golomb,
son of Eliahu Golomb, former
chief of Haganah, the Jewish
pre-State defense organization.
The contents of the letter were
not disclosed.
Sabage had told police that he
and the other six Israeli Arabs
who were remanded by a magis
trate for two weeks, had eontact-
Egyptian intelligence officers at
sea while on “fishing” trips op
posite the Egyptian-held city of
Gaza. He said that the group
went out on trawlers and pre-
gression by the Arab states.” It
therefore called on the United
States Government to extend di
rect arms aid to Israel instead of
through other countries “to as
sure Israel of the capacity to
maintain a convincing and effect
ive deterrent to Arab aggression
and thus to reinforce America’s
commitment to Israel’s security.”
The resolution condemned “the
criminal waste of the area’s most
precious resource — water — to
which the Arab states have com-
mited themselves and it called
on the American Government to
“condemn destructive acts of
water diversion and to make it
clear to the Arab countries that
such acts constitute aggression
which they cannot pursue with
impunity.”
The resolution also endorsed
amendment of the Export Con
trol Act of 1949 to strengthen
resistance to the Arab boycott
and urged the Administration to
issue regulations to curb and
eliminate boycott procedures. It
concluded by proposing that
“bringing the Arab states to the
peace table with Israel be the
unequivocal policy goal of our
Government.”
The conference concluded with
a recommendation to the Jewish
community to continue efforts to
find means for court tests of the
constitutionality of the controv
ersial church-state provisions of
the law. It advised the Jewish
agencies to seek inclusion of re
presentatives sensitive to these
viewpoints and broadly repre
sentative of the Jewish commu
nity in such advisory commit
tees as may be set up to imple
ment the school aid program. It
also recommended opposition to
legislation to provide free bus
transportation for pupils attend
ing non-public schools. Aaron
Goldman of Washington was re
elected NCRAC chairman.
Bayard Rustin, the Negro civil
rights leader, addressing the
conference, appealed to the Jew
ish community to take the lead
in creating a wide coalition of
all liberal forces to wage the
war for economic equality. He
deplored the fact that many Ne
groes were unaware of the role of
the Jews in the Negro struggle
and proposed that the story of the
late Julius Rosenwald and his
contributions to Negro education
be written for young Negroes.
tended to fish as far south as
possible. When they were oppo
site Gaza, Sabage said, according
to police, that they signaled to
shore and were met by the Egyp
tian officers who came out on a
motor launch. They were paid by
the Egyptians for the material
that they furnished and were
given further assignments, Sab
age said.
Police said that Sabage hanged
himself in his cell with a special
surgical belt he wore. His family
had been friendly with the
Golomb family and Sabage’s
father had even aided in the
landing of illegal Jewish im
migrants during the British
Mandate. Durng the war of
Liberation, while Sabage’s father
remained in Israel, the son went
with his mother to the Gaza Strip
but later returned to Israel along
with other Arabs who were re
united with their families in
Israel.
State Dept. Plan To Offer
Massive Food Aid To Egypt
JWV Commander Condemns
US Policy of Food for Egypt
WASHINGTON — National
Seven Arabs Arrested in Israel
As Spies; One Commits Suicide