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Page 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April », 1977
The Soitheri Israelite
JACK GELPBABT
, The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
j Oar 5lrd Year
Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc.
Second Class postage paid at Atlanta, Georgia
Mailing Address: P. O. Boa 773M, Atlanta, Georgia 30357
Editorial and bueineas office: 1M 15th St., N.W., Atlanta. Georgia
Phone: (404) 870-8248
Jack GeWbart: Editor ft Publisher
Vida Goldgar: Managing Editor; Mike Faass: Advertising Director ’
Advertising rates available upon request
Subscriptions: *12.50-1 year, I25.00-2H years
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Carter’s energy plan
President Carter was uncharacteristically serious when he
presented his energy program on television. He rarely smiled
and a sure sign of the gravity of the problem was that he wore
a conservative business suit rather than his now famous car
digan sweater.
We should take the energy crisis seriously too. As Jews we
are especially affected. Many people will be inconvenienced,
their life styles changed by curbs on the profligate use of
large autos, gasoline and natural gas — but as Jews the
energy crisis touches us even deeper.
Were it not for this nation’s reliance on oil, we would not
now be at the mercy of the Arab countries. We live under the
constant threat of another Arab oil boycott and there is a
s4nse of watching helplessly as our industry and land are
slowly devoured by petrodollars.
We can change all this by changing our dependence on oil.
As Jews we have compelling reasons to seek that in
dependence. The Arabs intend to continue using oil as a
political weapon in the Middle East, their announced object
being to destroy and eliminate Israel. They have said this
repeatedly and there is no reason to disbelieve them now.
So, how do we go about freeing ourselves from Arab oil?
There is a lesson to be learned from history. At one point in
the 19th century, this country relied almost as much on-whale
oil asjjje-dO ffoWon petroleum. Lamps were lit by it and it was
usetftor lubricants as well as a multitude of important com
mercial products. There was a profit in selling whale oil and
whales were consequently hunted and butchered without any
regard to the realities of the limited supply. As a result
whales became steadily more difficult to find and whale oil
became steadily more expensive to use.
■Stirred by rising costs and a sense of progress, Thomas
Edison, Henry Ford and others created alternatives to whale
oij and all at once this country was being lit by electricity and
running on gasoline. Whaling became virtually an obsolete
profession and whale oil became no more than an historical
curiosity.
If we once set our minds to developing other sources of
energy, we can do the same thing. If we are willing to sacrifice
our luxuries — much as this country did during World War II
— we can substitute wind, nuclear power, solar cells, tidal
movement, or anything else that creates energy.
Why should we live in fear of the Arabs because of a
geological accident buried under their fept? If we act together
nbw, their oil could some day be as useful as whale oil.
We can do this if we support the energy program President
Carter proposes, and — while we’re about it — we should also
let our congressmen know that it is not necessary for them to
jump up and down in protest with the mistaken notion that
they need to protect our luxurious life style. We should let
them know that we are mature enough to accept our respon
sibility and that, more than anything, we want to move out
from under Arab domination.
As Jews, we can do no other.
Jews in high places
Irving Shapiro has risen high in the wo.id of influential Jew headii
corporate hierarchy — he is board chairman of with the Arab boycott.
DuPont, a company among the 1
world’s largest and moat power
ful. Shapiro is Jewish and being
head of Du Pont is a long way
for a Jewish boy to come. We
should be proud of him. But
there are some questionable
things happening that make
one wonder.
First of all, Du Pont has
been accused by the American Jewish Congress of
playing along with the Arabs by complying with
Arab boycott regulations against Israel. I might
point out that this is not just an accusation by
a Jewish organization. In a letter to the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission on January
21, 1977, Du Pont' admitted that it furnished to
Arab customers “(1) certificates of non-Israeli was the way they truly felt — but I am severely
origin of the goods; or (2) statements-concerning disappointed when I suspect that a Jew who has
the non-existence of certain commercial relations
with Israel at the time of certification.”
Secondly, Shapiro, as chairman of the Business
Roundtable — a select group of some 150 top
business leaders — sent to President Carter on
a company complying
en we find him backing
off from a positive stand by a group that he dhaira.
I might add that no other member of that
prestigious group has yet publicly disagreed with
the Roundtable’s recommendations.
A leading official of a Jewish organisation
suggested recently that perhaps Shapiro has found
himself in the same position once occupied by
Henry Kissinger — that of being a Jew in the
midst of momentous decisions which make his
Jewishness “difficult,” and that Shapiro might be
“leaning over backwards,” as did Kissinger, to
show that he was “fair.”
If this is the case, I say it is a mistake. If you are
a Jew, you are a Jew. Surely Hitler and those like
him taught us that lesson.
I could frankly understand Shapiro or any other
influential Jew taking a negative position if that
risen to prominence soft pedals his Jewishness in
order not to be viewed as biased.
Let’s at least learn from spokesmen like Andrew
Young on that. He makes no bones about his in
terest in black affairs and does not hesitate to take
March 3 a recommendation by that group for a position favorable toward his people just because
federal anti-boycott legislation, including prohibi- he might offend someone's sense of fair play,
tion of the kind of compliance being practiced by Jews in high places work hard to get where they
Du Pont. are. It would seem to me that the only thing which
Seems odd, doesn’t it, that Shapiro would head a makes that effort worthwhile would be the oppor-
group advising against the same kind of boycott to tunity to then “tell it like it is” and be counted for
which his company was submitting? It begins to what they feel is right, regardless of religion. They
seem even odder when we find Shapiro later in- should certainly not allow their religion to become
dicating that he was not in total agreement with a moral burden. Our history has proven again and
the Business Roundtable. again that it is more important to challenge in-
What are we to make of this? First we have an justice than it is to negotiate with it.
Israel pays the price for solar
energy efforts to be free of oil
Poor in natural resources,
Israel has worked on developing
the intellectual imagination of
its people, leading to valuable —
but not highly publicized —
technological and scientific
breakthroughs in solar energy.
Israel has done this in the face
of rising research and develop
ment costs, and its traditional
dilemma of reaching high
enough levels of research and
productivity to accrue
worthwhile per-dollar returns.
Approximately two percent of
Israel’s Gross National Product
is invested in civilian and
military research and develop
ment (1.1 percent for civilian),
which places it among the most
developed countries like the
United States, West Germany
and Great Britian. In the last
decade, the emphasis in Israel
has been swinging from basic
study to applied technology.
Israel was one of the pioneers
in solar water heaters, develop
ing a unique system over two
decades ago. The key to this
system is a special chemical for
mula which, unlike normal black
paint, absorbs and retains more
of the sun’s heat when used in
solar panels.
Solar energy for refrigeration
was explored as early as 1958.
Even the conversion of sunlight
into electricity by using silicon
cells for an electric car was
explored more than ten years
ago, but costs are still pro
hibitive."
Today, Israel is probably the
single most advanced nation in
the development of solar energy,
although it is concentrating on
limited, practical uses for home
lighting and water heating. In
Eilat, a local resort hotel i^ now
operating with the first central
solar-fueled system /to supply
hot water. And an Israeli
hospital uses solar panels to
In the drawing-board stage
are plans for rotating solar
reflectors that will concentrate
high qualities of heat for cooking
and thermal insulation, and the
construction of thermal reser
voirs underneath buildings to
cut back, still further, conven
tional fuel needs. A solar-
powered home air conditioner is
to be unveiled this year.
Spurred by the return of the
Abu Rodeis oil fields under the
Sinai II agreement, Israel has
already saved 100,000 tons, or $8
million worth of oil, through the
development and use of solar
panels in 150,000 homes around
the country. Scientists at the
Technion — Israel's Institute of
Technology — have now
developed a method of extract
ing power from the scum algae
that grow on the brackish ponds
along the Dead Sea. These
single-celled plants provide a
cheap source of glycerol, a form
of combustible alcohol capable of
heating homes and powering,,
engines.
Israel has also designed and
marketed an improved device to
save fuel and heating costs for
central heating installation in
apartment buildings. Intended
for use with almost any existing
system (oil or electricity) not
thermostat controlled, the
device measures the
temperature outside the
building and computes how
much heat is required. This in
formation then starts or stops
the system’s pumps controlling
the afaount of heated water
passing through the radiators.
In conventional systems, hot
water is constantly pumped
when the system is on regardless
of temperature.
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