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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 5, 1982 The Southern Israelite The Weekly Newspaper lor Southern lewry laibliihed 192S Vida Goldgar Fjdstor and Publisher Bambi Jo Eaton Assistant Editor Leonard Goldstein Advertising Director Luna Levy Copy Editor Eschol A Harrell Production Manager Published every Friday by Ili€ Southern Israelite, Inc. Second Class Postage fxiid at Atlanta, Ga (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060) Mailing Address P.O. Bo* 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357 location: 188 15th St , N.W Phone (404) 876 8248 Advertising rates available upon request Subscriptions: $20.00, 1 year; $35.00, 2 years Member ot Jewish Telegraph* Agency. Religious News Service American Jewish Press Assn . Georgia Press Assn . National Newspaper Assn The Southern Israelite A Prize-Winning Newspaper 1980 1981 Better Newspaper Contests Guest editorial Promises, promises The Israelis who settled in the Sinai after the 1967 Six Day War thought they had a promise from their government to help them stay in the Sinai. They were wrong. Part of Egypt’s price for the C’amp David peace agreement was the removal of all Jews from the Sinai, and the government of Israel agreed to this condition. Six Israelis came to Washington last week as representatives of a movement opposing withdrawal from the Sinai. They say they have a million signatures of Israelis supporting their position. They oppose withdrawal, they say. because they do not trust the government of Egypt to keep its word once the Sinai has been given up. They also do not trust the government of the United States to keep its word. And they are fearful of what will happen if the government of Israel persists in keeping its promise to Egypt and the IJ.S. to withdraw. This boils down to a question of whose promise is good. To have faith in the Sinai withdrawal, Israelis must place more trust in the promises of Egypt and the U.S. than they can in the promises of their own government, which they do not fully trust in the first place. One would not have to be a person of little faith to he skeptical. Visit to Israel by T imothy S. Mescon Today I cried 1 stood in Jerusalem at Yad Vashem, the memorial to the martyrs and heroes of the Holocaust, and wept openly. Never before and hopefully never again will 1 witness the atrocities, the vengeance, and the inhumanity directed by one man against another. For the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to traverse a truly remarkable country. A country not much bigger than the state of Connecticut with not much more than three million people, but a country with a spirit and a will to survive like 1 have never before experienced. My visit to Israel provided an inside-out perspective of the land, of her people, of a nation. I slept at a kibbutz I dined with Ali Biram and his family in Daliat El-Carmel, a Druze village. I visited a community center in Tamra, an Arab village, and met with the interns for peace. I visited with Hanan Bar-on, deputy director- general of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I sat in the Knesset (Parliament) and discussed current and future problems with Yosef Rom, a memberof Prime Minister Begin’s Likud Party, and Daniel Rosolio, Labor party representative. I viewed the ancient cities of Jaffa, Caesarea and Masada. I stood at the Churches of Nativity and the Holy Sepulcher, the Dome of the Rock, and at the Western Wall. 1 waded in the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, and the Mediterranean. I saw snow on Mt. Hermon and not two hours later sat in the Judaean desert. Most importantly, however, I came to realize the “meaning of territory.” In one day I visited Kiryat Shimona, a development town situated on the Lebanese border, established by North African immigrants after Israeli independence in 1949. Last July this community was bombarded by Russian Ketusha rockets. From Kiryat Shimona I visited the Good Fence at Metulla, on the Lebanese border. Here citizens of Lebanon enter into Israel each day to work and return the same evening. Because the safety of Israelis entering Lebanon cannot be guaranteed, traffic through the border is still one-way. 1 then went to Tel Faher and sat in a former Syrian bunker on the Golan Heights taken during the Six-Day War by the Golani brigade commanded by Moshe Dayan. And then, to conclude the day, I traveled along the Jordan valley through the oasis of Jericho, on to Jerusalem. In one day, 1 visited Israeli outposts and towns on the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In one day, I came to understand the “meaning of territory." That night, I slept at Kibbutz Hagoshrim situated almost at a junction of Lebanon and Syria. As I walked the kibbutz, 1 talked with parents and children about life in a border settlement. I saw, next to the school, a bomb shelter. I saw, next to the dining room, a bomb shelter. I saw, next to the factory, a bomb shelter. I saw, next to the synagogue, a bomb shelter. During the stHhmer.of 1981, this kibbutz, like the city of Kiryat Shimona, was struck by Russian Ketusha rockets In 10 days, five rockets landed on the kibbutz. In one night, 1 came to understand the “meaning of territory.” The chorus of voices from around the world has joined in a unilateral condemnation of the Begin government. Prime Minister Begin has been accused of typifying our American perspective of a belligerent hawk, opposed to peace, intent on expanding Israeli territory. Prime Minister Begin signed the Camp David agreement pledging the return of the Sinai to Egypt. The recent extensions of Israeli law to the Golan Heights is merely an attempt to continue the process of peace and security. The threat of bombardment of Ketushas from neighboring borders is a threat we as Americans simply cannot imagine. The threat of territorial encroachment in the United States is nonexistent. The survival of the nation of Israel—a nation like the United States founded on the ideals of religious and economic freedom- must be ensured. Since 1948, the year of Israeli independence, the nation has not seen a decade without war, a decade with peace. We as citizens of the greatest country in the world must be willing to guarantee peace and prosperity to the only democracy in the Middle East, to Israel, a country with a knowledge of territory. f> Dr. Timothy S Mescon is an assist ant professor of management. College of Business Administration at Arizona State University. He is the son of Mike and Enid Mescon of Atlanta. The above material is reprinted from the Phoenix (Ariz.) Gazette. — Editor. Islam: What does it mean? by Stanley M. Lefco “To be an Arab, one must be a Muslim," said Libya’s Colonel MuammarQaddafi. It isthe Takfir wa Hijra sect of fanatical Muslims who are accused of killing Anwar Sadat and seek a return to a purely Islamic society. The word “Islam" appears almost daily in the news, but do we know what it means? One cannot in a few short paragraphs describe Islam other than touch upon some of its high points. Its teachings closely resemble Judaism. Founded in the seventh century, it is considered by some an off-shoot of Judaism. Its cardinal doctrine is monotheism; idolatry is viewed as the greatest of sins. The doctrine of original sin is not accepted, and Adam's fall is not a sir. but a falling away. Allah determines the destinies of men. He is a teacher and a guide and if one disbelieves him, he will lead one further astray. He sustains man, is merciful, and speaks to man through the Kur’an. which is basically the Islamic Bible. According to it, Arabs arc descendants of Ishmael. Abraham's older son. The Hadith is second to the Kur’an and is a body of transmitted actions and sayings of the prophet, Muhammad, and his companions. It can be equated in value as the New Testament to Christians. There are, however, many Hadiths, and not all are acceptable to all groups. Adam is considered the first prophet. Abraham is viewed as belonging neither to Judaism or Christianity, but is simply a man who submitted himself to God. Moses is a frequently mentioned prophet in Islam. Jesus is rejected as the son of God. Islam does not accept his death as an atonement for man's sins or that he was resurrected. The Jews are considered the people of the book since God gave them the scriptures, but Islam sees the Jews as having perverted the revelations of God. Islamic law relegates Jews to second class citizenship. Muhammad (570-632), the prophet through whom God made his final revelation, began his preachings on Mount Hira. He was orphaned at an early age and married a widow, 15 years his senior, who bore him several children. When his first wife died, he remarried and had several wives. It was not Muhammad’s intention to found a new religion. He and his successors followed Jewish models on prayer, dietary law and circumcision. In the beginning, he addressed his preachings to the citizens of Mecca. In his mid-life, he began having visionary experiences which convinced him that he was the chosen agent of divine revelation. He claimed that he was the last of the prophetic line. Later he sought acceptance by the Jews, but they rejected him as an imposter He turned against them and a military struggle ensued in which many Jews were killed or banished. Continued next page. Perspective