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I
Two
THK SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, Nov. 6, 1970
dealing With ‘Palestine’
Nationalism Not Going to be Easy
only reason an additional Arab
state by the name of ‘Palestine’
does not exist today is simply
that the Arabs rejected the Uni
ted Nations Partition Resolution
Continued on page 3
By BEN G. FRANK
“Serious questioning.”
"Disagreement between young
end old.”
“Lively debate.”
All the above describe the
emotions and differences that
erupted at a recent seminar of
American Zionist leaders on a
subject in which there is much
diverse opinion among American
Jews and Israelis, too.
The subject was “The Pales
tinians,” and .aware that it is the
most important item on the
propaganda scene facing the
American Jewish community,
the American Zionist Federation
held the leadership seminar on:
“Who are they, What do they
want and How do we respond
to their Terrorism and Propa
ganda.”
Controversy at the conference
was aroused by the following
viewpoints:
There were those who believe
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that the Palestinians lost, and
therefore are paying the price,
and one should not even con
sider extending the olive branch
to them.
There were those who do not
want Israel to give up one inch
of the occupied territory, cer
tainly not to the Palestinians.
There were those who claim
that there is no group as the
Palestinians; that they really are
South Syrians and that Arab
nationalists themselves did not
believe in segmented pieces of
.territory. Palestine, to them, was
Southern Syria. There is, there
fore, no Palestine entity.
On the other hand, there were
those who would reach out to
the more moderate Palestine
Arabs and allow them to deter
mine what they want, and grant
it to them.
There were those who would
cede the West Bank for a Pal
estine state on the proposition
that Palestinians live there now.
And yet, underlying nearly
everyone’s thinking that Sunday
afternoon was the general agree
ment that while “Palestinian na
tionalism now springs belatedly
out of the head of Arab nation
alism merely as a hostile re
sponse to Israel, the lad is alive
and kicking and calling him bas
tard will not exorcise him.” So
spoke Professor Marie Syrkin,
author, lecturer, noted Zionist
and participant in the seminar.
And she added: “In the current
Middle East scenario, the path
etic Arab refugee has been re
placed by the husky Palestinian
commando . . . the rallying cry
has changed from ‘repatriation
to liberation.’ ”
And as Professor Joseph Neyer
of Rutgers said at the confer
ence, “the Arab terrorist leaders
are professionals and highly ed
ucated. They have made their
profession: Revolution—a j o b
they stick at, for they have no
other.”
If one doubts the effectiveness
of the Palestine terrorists re
cently, just look at the recent
skyjack incident. Palestine hi
jackers despite their barbaric
affront to the international com
munity, may have even won a
propaganda victory, since many
of the hostages, Jews included,
actually stood before the tele
vision cameras and told repor
ters that in effect their captors
were rehlly not bad guys and
one should try to understand
their point of view.
At the seminar of the Ameri
can Zionist Federation, the re-
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spouses may have been diverse
according to particular Zionist
affiliations, but there were com
mon threads that were expressed
and should be remembered by
all in any discussion on the Pal
estinians.
One reality is that the Pales
tine terrorists want to destroy
Israel and do not recognize the
right of Israel to exist. But
another reality is that Israel ex
ists and has the right to exist as
a nation among nations. Profes
sor Shlomo Avineri of the He
brew University, in a recent ar
ticle wrote that just as it is im
possible to overlook the legiti
macy of Palestinian Arab na
tionalism, it is impossible to de
ny the same right to the Israe
lis.”
Another common thread of
agreement that came out of the
seminar was that the refugee
problem, given the will, can be
solved in the Middle East as it
has been in days gone by in Tur
key and India. Moreover, the
Israeli government has repeated
ly announced its readiness to
negotiate “secure and agreed
borders” whenever the Arabs
want to discuss peace.
Along the lines of discussing
territory, the record shows that
the Jewish state in 1948 was es
tablished on only one-sixth of
the terrority originally envis
aged by the Balfour Declaration.
Today the claims of the Pales
tinians can be satisfied on five-
sixths of the land that the Bal
four Declaration envisaged as a
Jewish state, the five-sixths
which today encompass Jordan
and the West Bank.
A crucial point was added to
the discussion by Rabbi Israel
Miller, president of the Ameri
can Zionist Federation: “The
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