Newspaper Page Text
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The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 100C
Vol. XLIV
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, March 14, 1969
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JERUSALEM (JTA) — The
dominant Labor party nominated
Mrs. Golda Meir to be Israel’s
fourth Premier to succeed Levi
Eshkol who died last week. The
former Milwaukee school teacher,
now 70, and a former Israeli am
bassador to the Soviet Union,
was nominated by a bentral com
mittee vote of 287 to nothing with
45 abstentions.
Zalman Shazar, President of
Israel, was expected to give Mrs.
Meir the mandate to choose a
new Government within a few
days. The size of the vote for
her indicated she would have
little difficulty in forming a gov
ernment, particularly in view of
another resolu t i o n approved
at the meeting calling for
a government with the same
partners and with the same dis
tribution of portfolios as the
caretaker government, headed by
Gen. Yigal Alton, left by Mr.
Eshkol.
In accepting the nomination,
the Premier-designate said she
had served in many important
posts “but there is nothing as
great as this moment.” She add
ed she would do her best to
maintain a government of nation
al unity. Assuming her appoint
ment, she and Mrs. Indira Ghan-
di will be the only women Pre
miers in the world.
Most of the abstentions were
from members of the (Israel
Workers Party) Rafi, most of
whom favored Gen. Moshe
Dayan, the popular Defense Min
ister, who broke away from Ma-
pai to join former Premier David
Ben-Gurion’s Rafi faction, which
at least theoretically joined the
present Labor party. Some Rafi
members said they would have
preferred Gen. Dayan but that
since there was only one name
before them, they would vote for
Mrs. Meir.
Mrs. Meir told the group that
Israel would be faced with major
crisis but that it would be able
to surmount them if it was
united. She added she was
thankful that the party leaders
“thought I am fit to work with
this team.” Shimon Peres, former
Rafi leader, said that those party
members who abstained in the
voting for Mrs. Meir retained
their right to vote for the candi
date they thought was best qual
ified to be Premier and would
support him when the
comes. He said that man
“none but Moshe Dayan.”
time
was
lo Egyptian Economy, Military
WASHINGTON (JTA)— Mrs.
Golda Meir’s policy, if she be
comes Premier of Israel, will be
“fully as tough and unbending
as that of the late Levi Eshkol,”
and will be based on the thesis
that “the only possible road to
peace is by direct negotiations
with the Arab States,” the Wash
ington Post reported from Jer
usalem. Correspondent Allred
Friendly, writing of an interview
with Mrs. Meir, also declared
that she “ruled out today any
chance of an acceptable solution
to the Middle East conflict
emerging from discussions by the
big powers.” Mrs. Meir was ask
ed about the possibility of the
Soviet Union agreeing on terms
acceptable to Israel and including
Egypt to take them as well. She
was quoted in reply: “It will
never happen. If Rdssia were ca
pable of preparing a peace plan
acceptable to us and had enough
influence on him to say, ‘for
God’s sake, sit down with the Is
raelis and make peace directly’.”
Mrs. Meir said that she did
not see any new or different ap
proaches Israel might take at this
time, but she rejected the conten
tion that for Israel to cling to its
present set of demands would
inevitably lead to war. “It
could,” she pointed out, “lead to
continuation of the status quo, or
to peace.”
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Two days of
fierce artillery duels across the
Suez Canal which Israel says
Cairo initiated in an apparently
deliberate attempt to create a
new war scare in the Middle East,
has had disastrous consequences
for Egypt, a military spokesman
said Monday.
The chief of staff of Egypt’s
armed forces, Lt. Gen. Abdel
Moneim Riad, 50, regarded as
Egypt’s most competent military
leader, was killed. At least
nine oil storage tanks at Port
Suez near the canal’s sou
them end went up in flames, des
troying an estimated 27,000 tons
of fuel. Three Egyptian ships at
Port Ibrahim on the Gulf of Suez
were hit by Israeli shells and one
was set afire. A fertilizer plant
adjacent to the damaged oil re
fineries and Egyptian army en
campments and artillery positions
were also hit and seriously dam
aged. There was no estimate of
casualties to Egyptian military
personnel but they are believed
to have been heavy.
Israeli losses included three
soldiers killed and 14 wounded.
Israel admitted that a Piper Cub
spotter plane was shot down by
Egyptian anti-aircraft fire. It
crashed in Israel-held territory
and the pilot was killed.
Gen. Riad was given a hero’s
Funeral in Cairo. The procession
was led by grim-visaged Presi
dent Gamal Abdel Nasser as
throngs pressed against police lines
shouting for “revenge,” it was re
ported in Jerusalem. The foreign
ministers of 13 Arab League
states met in the Egyptian cap
ital to deal with political and di
plomatic issues. Lt. Gen. Odd
Bull, chief of the United Nations
cease-fire observers corps, flew
to Cairo from Jerusalem for a
meeting at the request of Egyp
tian Foreign Minister Mahmoud
Riad. Egyptian diplomatic sources
said Gen. Bull would be asked
to warn Israel that the fighting
along the Suez Canal might have
“grave consequences.” Egypt
claims that Israel started the ar
tillery duel in violation of the
cease-fire and shelled civilian
areas. Gen. Bull has already in
formed the UN that the fire-fight
was initiated by Egypt. Fighting
took place all along the canal
from Qantara to Suez.
Israeli military circles had high
professional regard for Gen. Riad
who was named Chief of Staff by
War. He was killed while per
sonally inspecting Egyptian artil
lery positions at Ismailia early
Sunday morning.
Israeli military sources said it
was unusual for a nation’s top
military leader to be at the front
lines at such an early hour and
that it indicated that the Egyp
tian artillery attack was delib
erately planned and ordered by
the highest authorities and was
not the result of a skirmish that
Outburst Staggers Court
With Venom And Bias
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Sirhan
B. Sirhan, the 24-year-old Jor
danian immigrant who has ad
mitted the assassination of Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy, cursed the
“God-damned Zionists” of Amer
ica from the witness stand. He
accused them of having sent
$360 million to Israel tax-free”
while there was unemployment
and hunger in this country and
at a time when President John
son was bringing home soldiers
and urging Americans to save
dollars.
He said that when provoked
he could kill Lyndon Johnson,
Arthur J. Goldberg or anyone
else supporting the Israeli cause.
The outburst came during young
Sirhan’s second day on the wit
ness stand in his own defense.
Chief Defense Counsel Grant
B. Cooper permitted him to vent
his rage to substantiate the de
fense claim that Sirhan’s passion
The Faces of
tans in
Israel
A1 Davis Ben Hyman and Max Cuba wrapt in tense drama
riving at JLydda Airport while on the fact-finding “Operation:
page 10)
new immigrants they witnessed ar-
Israel” mission. (More pictures on
about the occupation of his home
land by Israel led to the fatal
shooting of Sen. Kennedy last
June 5.
Sirhan, who began by aswer-
ing counsel Cooper’s questions
quietly, launched into a tirade
when asked about events in the
Middle East. “I want a place of
my own where the people spoke
my own language, where they
ate my own food, where they
shared my own politics, where I
could have something I could
identify with as a Palestinian
and as an Arab,” he said.
He claimed he had admired the
late Sen. Kennedy until he saw
him on television helping the Is
raeli celebrate their independence
and became so enraged he want
ed to kill him. “You must re
member, sir,” he said to his at
torney, “Zionism is more inim
ical to me than Communism is
to you.” He said he heard a
radio announcement that Sen.
Kennedy had formally committed
himself to sending 50 Phantom
jet fighter-bombers to Israel. “I
recognized that Robert F. Ken
nedy was not the good guy he
was made out to be,” Sirhan said.
The young Arab also testified
that he was enraged bv a mag
azine photograph of jubilant Is
raeli troops on the banks of the
Suez Canal in June, 1967. “If I
saw those guys (the soldiers) in
person I would have killed them,”
he said, "beeause they were the
winners, they could tell Nasser
what to do.” Sirhan said that he
read “everything I could get my
hands on” pertaining to the Mid
dle East conflict, mainly mater
ial put out by the Arab infor
mation Center, a propaganda
agency supported by the Arab
league, as well as the B’rrai
B’rith Mssenger, a Jewish week
ly published in Los Angeles,
was escalated on the Initiative of
local commanders. Israeli circles
believe that other high ranking
Egyptian officers may have been
killed or wounded in the burst
of Israeli tank fire acroas the
150 yard-wide Suez Canal which
killed Gen. Riad. They said the
Egyptian Chief of Staff was not
likely to have been oa his in
spection tour alone and probably
was accompanied by headquar
ters staff officers.
Israeli military circles also In
dicated that Egyptian shipping in
the Gulf of Suez was a target of
their artillery for the first time.
A spokesman said the hits scored
on three vessels were a remin
der to Egypt that Israel had the
power to blockade Port Suez and
Port Ibrahim. They pointed out
that Egypt would have immense
difficulties if it was forced to
rely on land transport to bring
supplies from the south that ordi
narily would be carried by ship.
Although the fire exchange in
volved thousands of rounds of
ammunition and hundreds of
weapons, Israeli troops were
spared the heavy casualties of
last October’s heavy canal battle
when 15 were killed and 31 in
jured. Since that battle, concrete
bunkers and underground forti
fications have been built.
Both sides filed several letters
with the Security Council blam
ing each other for starting the
fighting.
In Washington, the 4hn<an-
ment deplored the vtotatlnn of
the United Nations cease-fire, es
pecially since "lives were lost to
such skirmishes,” Stats Depart
ment spokesman Robert J. Ifc-
Closkey said. He was asked at a
press conference to comment on
the artillery duel. Mi. Closhey
confirmed that Israel Foreign
Minister Abba Eban will meet
with Secretary of State William
P. Rogers on Wednesday. He had
no information on a report that
King Hussein of Jordan plans a
trip to Washington. On the status
of the Big Four talks on the Mid
east, Mr. Closkey said such talks
had not yet been scheduled.
Rabbinic Mission
Group Forms UJA
“Spiritual Arm v
NEW YORK (JTA)—More than
100 Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox rabbis who travelled to
Israel recently on a mission spon
sored by the United Jewish Ap
peal have decided to form n per
manent body to serve as “a spir
itual arm” of the UJA, it wns an
nounced here. They were mem
bers of a rabbinic study mission
that studied conditions and prob
lems faced by the Israelis. (See
page 16 of this issue.)
Rabbi Dudley Weinberg, *t
Milwaukee, chairman ol the UJA
Rabbinical Advisory Committee
who served as mission coordina
tor said, “We rabbis went . . . *o-
gether to demonstrate the solidar
ity of American Jewry tn its con
cern for the welfare and security
of our brothers and sisters in Is
rael.” Rabbi Gilbert Klaperman,
president of the New York Board
of Rabbis, observed, “It is proper
that we rabbis should join to
gether, in spite of our . . . dif
ferences. The joint expression of
our fundamental unity will . . ,
move our people to deepen their
attachment to . . . our fellow
Jews in Israel.”