Newspaper Page Text
Arabs, Reds Say Fight
Against Zionism A Must
PARIS, (JTA) — Arab and
Communist delegations atten
ding a UNESCO conference here
plan to call on the international
organization to fight “Zionism to
the same extent as racism,
apartheid and war propaganda.
The conference is drawing up
draft resolutions for the general
conference due to take place Oc
tober, 1976 in Nairobi. Its
resolutions will deal with the
fight against racism, apartheid
and war propaganda in the mass
media.
At the opening session Mon
day, the Algerian delegation
called on the conference to adopt
amendments making the fight
against Zionism mandatory. The
delegate said, “Israel is an im
perialist state, it is ruled by
Zionist ideology which is com
parable to apartheid and war
propaganda.”
This stand was supported by
Iraq and the delegate from
Byelorussia. This is the first
time since UNESCO adopted
anti-Israeli resolutions last year
that an Israeli delegation attend
ed a UNESCO-sponsored con
ference.
Most of the interest in the
UNESCO building centered,
however, on the resignation of a
senior official, Joel Blocker,
UNESCO’s director of informa
tion. Blocker, 41, a former
Newsweek staffer, wrote
UNESCO’s Director General
Amadou M’Bow of Senegal to
say he is resigning to protest the
organization’s anti-Israel
resolutions and the General
Assembly’s decision to equate
Zionism with racism. Blocker
said his resignation will become
effective December 31.
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VOL. LI
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
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Established
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One Section, 12 Pages Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, December 19, 1975
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NO. 51
Zionism Not Racism, Echeverria
MEXICO CITY, (JTA) - The
Mexican government “in no way
identified Zionism with racism,”
President Luis Echeverria told a
delegation of American and
Canadian Jewish leaders he had
invited to visit him in response
Arab Armaments Larger Than NATO,
Peres Tells UJA Group
NEW YORK, (JTA) - Israeli
Defense Minister Shimon Peres
said here Saturday night that 10
Arab countries have signed $19
billion worth of arms deals since
the Yom Kippur War, "half from
the West and half from the
East” which makes them, from
the point of view of armaments,
“larger than the NATO force” in
Europe.
Peres also presented a detailed
breakdown of the armed
strength of the so-called con
frontation states on Israel’s
borders.
But he assured the more than
2000 people attending the United
Jewish Appeal Conference
Dinner at the New York Hilton
Hotel that while Israel does not
underestimate this force “we can
and shall repulse them.” Peres
said that while he could not go
into details, Israel possesses the
strength to face the concen
trated Arab power if necessary
and “she will retain this ability
for the foreseeable future.”
The Defense Minister also ex
plained Israel’s rationale for
refusing to deal with the
Palestine Liberation Organiza
tion under any circumstances
and why it opposes the creation
of a third state between Jordan
and Israel. He also stated, in
general terms, what Israel
proposes to offer the
Palestinians by way of com
promise should they agree to
recognize Israel and come to
terms with it.
Peres, who is seeking to speed
up U.S. arms deliveries to his
country, conceded that Israel is
dependent for miltiary supplies
on the U.S. but stressed that
U.S. support of Israel is in
America’s interest. “Without
Israel, the U.S. would have
fewer problems, but without
Israel the Middle East and the
Persian Gulf would already have
become a Soviet arena and the
free world would lose by being
excluded from the area and by
the area becoming a card in the
Soviet deck,” Peres said.
Reiterating Israel’s view that
a solution of the Palestinian
problem can be achieved only
through negotiations with Jor
dan, Peres noted that the PLO is
not an elected body but a “coali
tion of armed factions who
resort to violence.” He said it
was impossible to negotiate with
them because “matters agreed
upon with (PLO chieftain Yasir)
Arafat may not be accepted by
(George) Habash or (Ahmed)
Jabril, and vice versa.”
A Palestinian state between
Israel and Jordan potentially
"carries with it a Lebanese-like
tragedy,” Peres said, and would
place Soviet missiles within 10-
15 miles from the heart of Israel.
He said that when the Arabs
show they are ready for com
promise, Israel would offer them
two fundamental options: “an
agreement in the European style
between us and Jordan which
will enable the Palestinian peo
ple to retain their identity
without cutting the land into im
possible pieces; or a federation in
which every citizen will enjoy
equal rights and every people
will enjoy the right to be
different.’’ Peres did not
elaborate on these proposals.
According to the Israeli
defense chief, “Those Arab
states which confront Israel
have today 22 armored divisions;
40 tank brigades; 8100 tanks;
4800 artillery pieces; about 1000
ground-to-ground missiles; 1980
attack aircraft; 150 helicopters;
200 batteries of ground-to-air
missiles; 12 submarines; 12
destroyers; 65 airfields and 22
naval bases on the Mediterra
nean and Red Seas.” He said
they have under arms a com
bined total of 1.5 million men or
“for every man, boy and child in
Israel there is one Arab soldier.”
Peres called on the Jewish
people to show Israel that it has
Whatsis On Banknote
Brings Jordanian Ire
JERUSALEM (JTA) - King
Hussein of Jqrdan was honored
on his recent 40th birthday by
new dinar notes bearing his
likeness and a symbol strikingly
similar to the Star of David. The
Jordanian press immediately
demanded the withdrawal of the
new currency. But the new
dinars have soared in value on
the West Bank black market.
“a people it can depend upon.”
He said the future “will require
the Jewish people to dedicate
even greater material means; in
Israel in the form of taxes and
here (the U.S.) in the form of
donations to minimize our
dependence and enhance our in
dependence.”
to critical Jewish reactions to
Mexico’s vote for the United
Nations General Assembly
resolution equating Zionism
with racism.
The 15 Jewish leaders,
who met with Echeverria at a
lengthy luncheon Friday, Dec.
12, issued a statement declaring
that the President had told them
that Mexican Foreign Minister
Emilio Rabasa “is now at the
United Nations to ensure that
future votes by Mexico cannot be
misinterpreted or mis
understood as equating Zinism
with racism or opposing the
national aspiration of the Jewish
people.”
Rabasa spent five days in
Laurence M. Frank Of Atlanta
Named UJA National Chairman
Laurence M. Frank of Atlanta
was re-elected a national chair
man of the United Jewish
Appeal at the closing dinner of
the UJA 1976 National
Conference in New York, Satur
day night, December 13.
Mr. Frank is one of 14 national
chairmen who constitute the
UJA General Chairman’s inner
council on the policy and conduct
of the campaign.
“When anti-Semitism is given
credence in the forum of the
family of nation,” said General
Chairman Frank N. Lautenberg,
“the very existence of the Jewish
people is being threatened. Our
response to the forces of oppres
sion will be — in the words of
the theme of this conference —
to ‘Proclaim Liberty.’
"Our campaign in 1976 will be
the greatest show of strength
and unity in the history of
American Jewish fund raising.
In electing a man of Frank’s
caliber and capability to this key
campaign post, we are serving
notice that in the coming year
we will continue to lead with
strength and to stand as one
with the people of Israel and
with Jews everywhere who
need our help.”
In accepting his appointment,
Mr. Frank said: "It is with great
pride and with the deepest con
cern that I assume my new
responsibilities. To say that the
coming campaign is a challenge
to Jewish leadership in this
country is to understate the
reality. Never before have the
people of Israel been so com
pletely dependent on us to meet
the social, educational and
welfare needs of the immigrants
we have helped bring to their
shores.
“We are their mainstays in
their effort to provide the
LARRY FRANK
highest possible quality of life
for a fully absorbed immigrant
-TURN TO PAGE 4
Israel last week in an effort to
clear up what he called “certain
misunderstandings” resulting
from the Mexican vote on the
resolution. One result has been
suspension by American and
Canadian Jewish organizations
of tour programs to Mexico, with
Mexican hotels receiving
thousands of room cancellations.
Lawrence Peirez, a member of
the B’nai B’rith board of gover
nors and one of the 15 members
of the delegation, said after the
meeting that B’nai B’rith will
await “formal action” by Mexico
in the United Nations dis
associating itself from the anti-
Zionist resolution before con
sidering whether to reinstate its
tours to Mexico.
David Blumberg, B’nai B’rith
president, who just returned
from a visit to Mexico, also said
that the current B’nai B’rith
positioh on tourism to Mexico
would continue pending further
developments on Mexico’s UN
actions. Will Maslow, general
counsel of the American Jewish
Congress, said Echeverria
assumed full resiwnsibility for
the vote on November 10 when
the General Assembly adopted
the anti-Zionist resolution.
Seymour Graubard, chairman
of the Anti-Defamation League
of B’nai B’rith, said he was “en
tirely satisfied” with the
meeting with the Mexican Presi
dent. Graubard said Echeverria
told the Jewish leaders that he
had hoped the Zionist-racist
resolution “would lead the con
flicting parties in the Middle
East to make progress in their
talks.” The President added that
the vote did not accomplish the
results he had hoped for.
Graubard and Maslow were part
of the 15-member delegation.
Report Beirut Synagogue
Looted And Badly Damaged
PARIS, (JTA) - The
Lebanese Minister of Interior,
Camille Chamoun, announced
December 11 in Beirut that the
city’s Jewish synagogue of
Aouadi-Boujnil has been looted
and seriously damaged.
The minister said fire broke
out in the synagogue as a con
sequence of nearby fighting.
Other reports from Beirut in
dicate that the former Jewish
quarter, deserted since last
week’s fighting, has been heavily
shelled by both Christian and
Moslem units and has become a
sort of no-man’s land.
There are no reports of Jewish
casualties in spite of the new
flare-up in the fighting, which,
according to conservative es
timates, caused the death of 235
people in the last two days last
week and the wounding of hun
dreds of civilians.
Lebanese Jewish families who
had planned to return to their
homes from Western Europe
where they have sought asylum
are now reported to have decided
to settle in Europe. Scores of
Lebanese Jews reportedly
applied to the French authorities
for resident’s permits and
similar cases are reported in
Switzerland.