Page 2 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, May 19, 1983
World-National -
M-T
RabbiPlaat
Jerusalem assembly a must
By
RABBI W. GUNTHER PLAUT
It is natural to be disturbed by a Jim Keegstra who for a dozen years has systematically taught anti-semitism to his innocent pupils in Eckville, Alberta. It is equally disturbing to find that there are so-called respectable citizens who still support this creepy imitation of a teacher who, to boot, is mayor of that for-lorntown.
The first reaction is that anti-semitism and Holocaust revisionism are well and alive in Canada. Although the Eckville incident remains fairly isolated and the reaction of decent citizens has been encouraging, the question remains: What are we to do about it? We have exposed the evil — but is that einough? Is it not always possible that anti-semitism (newly carried aloft by a denial of the Holocaust) will once again course through the veins of Western civilization and infect them as it once did not so long ago?
the forthcoming worldwide Assembly of Combatants, Partisans and Sorvivora famishes a ready-made opportunity for one response^
To begin with, this unique assembly (which will take place in Jerusalem, Oct. 2 to 6) will be a witness to history, and not only" by the survivors of Nazi brutality. This time the combatants, partisans and liberators will move to the forefront: the thousands of Allied soldiers, above all, who fought the Nazis and were in a real sense part of that resistance to evil of which a better world was ultimately fashioned. In Jerusalem those who actively resisted Nazism Will have a meeting of reunion and rededication, and they wilLbe joined by survivors of the Holocaust, who by surviving resisted and defeated the aims of Hitler.
I hope that many who will read this column will decide that they and their families want to be present at this rededication to the ideals of our people and to its meaningful survival. They will come and by their presence pledge themselves to fight anti-semitism wherever and in whatever form it raisesits head.
They will live through moments of nostalgia when they meet their buddies of old and reach across the years to shake hands with those who then were victims . . . but overcame all odds and will now.participate in this assembly.
I have been asked by the government of Israel to lead the Canadian delegation. Elsewhere in this issue of The Canadian Jewish News yon will find an advertisement with further details. Come and Join us on this historic occasion.
Rafael Eitangoes out tuith a bang; his career subject of controversy
By
SHELDON KIRSHNER
When he appointed him in 1978,_Menachem Begin hailed him as a 'â– soldier's soldier." , When he stepped down last month. Begin described him as "one of our most glorious soldiers, not only in this generation."
The object of this fulsome praise, former chief of staff Gen. Rafael Eitan, is certainly something of a cult figure in right-wing Israeli circles.
A gruff, simple man, Eitan acquitted himself . as a war hero in 1973 by helping to stem a threatening Syrian assault on the Golan Heights. And in his five years as Israel's top soldier, he showed himself to be a demanding - disciplinv arian as well as a%com-mander of tactical imagination.
His critics, while conceding his soldierly qualities, were glad that the Eitan erahad come to an end.
Eitan, they charged, was a militarist who had engageid in partisan political debate when he should have kept his month shut. He had used unnecessary stronjg-anh tactics on the West Bank. He had displayed callousness and insen-
sitivity during the Bebut massacre laist Septein-
,;ber,:'
Succeeded by Moshe Levy, his deputy, Eitan went out not with a whimper but with a
Moshe Levy [left] succeeds Rafael Eitan as IDF chief of staff. [EPPA photo]
roaches in a bottle." requirement" for In response, 18 mem- entry into the FLO, bers of the Knesset asked Moshe Arens, the defence minister, to reprimand Eitan. Arens, refusing, said that Eitan
his
• On the eve of his departure from the armed forces, Eitan shocked many Israelis by making pejorative remarks about the Arabs. In advocating increased Jewish settlement as an antidote to stone-throwing by West Bank Palestinians, he reportedly declared: "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do will be to scurry around like drugged
was a "national hero" and that he did not wish to mar his last days in the army.
• In a farewell interview with Haaretz, Eitan criticized the government for its handling of the war in Lebanon.
"My mission was to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon," he said. "ITiis was fully carried out. This was the first war in which the Arabs actually surrendered.
"But this time, too, what occurred in all the other wars happened again: when the Arabs collapsed, they (presumably the politicians) stopped lis. So it was on that Friday when Begin phoned and ordered me to stop, in spite of the fact that the Syrians had collapsed and their T-72 tanks were burning like candles. The only time they let us finish a war was in the Six Day War.''
• Eitan, too, engendered controversy when he alleged that a Jewish girl had been murdered in the occupied territories by a Gaza Arab "as an initiation
Israeli police denied the assertion, and Interior Minister Yosef Burg said no such evidence had been uncovered. Al-Hamishmar, which has close links with Mapam, characterized his comment as "an unprecedented utilization of a personal tragedy for the sake of anti-Arab incitement."
•A month and a half before his retirement, Israeli soldiers facing a court martial for brutality against" West Bank Palestinians said in testimony that Eitan had called for the harass-
ment of Arabs.
In dealing with outbreaks of violence on the West Bank, Eitan declared Israel was fated to live by the sword. "It is better that the sword should be in our hands than in our necks," he was quoted as saying, *' We must create a situation which will restrain
clear that Jewish settlers there should be permitted to carry arms and open fire when attacked.
"This should be made clear and publicized among the Arab residents," he said, in a statement that could be interpreted as a call to vigilantism." ^ Always the outspoken hawk, Eitan hitimated on the eve of the 1982 Lebanese war that an Israeli offensive was imminent. Israel, he said, had not amassed billions of dollars worth of military equipment just to'see it sit idle in the face of PLO bombardments.
As a military technician , Eitan did well during the war. But his reputation was considerably tarnished by the Lebanese Christian massacre of Palestinian civilians in West Beirut refugee camps.
According to the Israeli commission investigating die mass murder, Eitan was guilty of "dereliction of duty." Hav-
them from throwing ing ordered the Leban-
stones. But in any case, . we will always have to live with a certain aegree of Arab violence."
• An arch nationalist who believes that Israel had a right to keep civilians, and had not territories it acquired in moved swiftly enough to
ese fighters into the camps, they argued, Eitan had failed to take cognizance Of the likelihood of Phalange violence against innocent
1967, Eitan aroused m-dignation among liberal Israelis by making it
during 1982
JERUSALEM [JTA] -
A total of 13,176 new immigrants arrived in Israel during 1982, a 14% increase over the previous year. But most were from Western countries.
largest reservoir of potential olim remained virtually dry, the Knesset was told as it opened Its summer session with a debate on aliya.
The immigration figures were provided by
Suicides among elderly, kids rising
The Soviet Union, the Aharon Uzan, the minister of absorption. The paucity of aliya from the
stop the killing pnce it came to Ids attention.
The commissioners recommended no action against Eitan, since he was scheduled to retire.
Eitan, who had said he knew nothing about the entry of Christian militiamen into Sabra and Shatila, accepted the commission' s findings with grace. The army, he said, would not only accept the verdict, but would learn from it. "The IDF will prove that it has the ability to withstand criticism and draw painful conclusions."
That doesn't mean he judged himself harshly. Quite the contrary. In an interview with Maariv, he said, "I do not feel guilty about anything."
A stickler for disci-
USSR was the subject of pline, Eitan once chased
By
GAYE APPLEBAUM
OTTAWA —
Suicides among children and the elderly are increasing alarmingly as traditional family values break down, Dvorah Rosenberg told 150 delegates to the recent East-^ Region conference of the Women's League for Conservative Judaism.
Rosenberg, national consultant for the league and wife of Rabbi Yaacov Rosenberg, vice-chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, was the keynote speaker at the 2-day conference. The theme was "Get Wis(36m, Gain Understanding."
In keepingi with this ; theme, Rosenberg chose ^ to address problems fac-
- ing North American society as; family life in Canada and the U.S. "continues to erode.''
The main sufferers in this trend are clearly the children and the elderly, Rosenberg said.
Children need time and they need discipline, Rosenberg toff the Sisterhood" members and their husbands at the opening dinner. _j
The often-outspoken rebbetzin, who crisscrosses the continent on regular lecture tours, said: "The kids everywhere are suffering."
As parents pursue individual career goals, lonely teen-agers, with no one to turn to, often see suicide as their only alternative. :
Rosenberg said a new phenomenon- hais sur-
pression of concern is a relief.
"These people offer companionship, entice their money horn them, and then abandon those
"I'm sick and tired of the women's libbers saying women don't count in Judaism. Women have always been central to the continuance of Jew-
Dvorah Rosenberg
faced in the past five years, as the cults move in on the elderiy, who are lonely, and often abandoned by their families. The cult message of firiendship, concern~anc caring is very welcome to^ many people who are so Isolated that any ex-
elderly as quickly as they ish life," Rosenberg in-befriended them," sisted. Rosenberg said. .
"The statistics show elderly suicide has tripled In the last five years," sheadded.
Rosenberg believes the erosion of traditional family life has come with
She said women must now try and combine their roles outside the home with the tradition^ al, to ensure that family life does not suffer.
"This is the first time in a number of years that Ottawa has hosted the
the change in women's annual regional confer-
expectations and their roles in both the home and the labor force.
She pointed to the ''great contributions made by women in biblical times," with numerous references to the women in Proverbs (Mishlay).
ence" said Cally Car-dash, currently serving her second term as president of the Eastern Region.
Although Ottawa is in Ontario, it is closer to Montreal and linked^ith the Eastern Region, she explained.
a separate report by Rafael Kotlowitz, head of the Jewish Agency's immigration and absorption department.
Knesset members spoke of an aliya "crisis" because, despite the marginal increase from the West, overall figures were low relative to the Soviet immigration boom of the middle and late 1970s J
Kotlowitz reported that of the 114 Jews allowed to leave the Soviet Union last month, only 11 came to Israel. He said that was the lowest monthly figure since the mid - 1960s when the Soviets first opened their gates a crack.
"In effect; a month after the Jerusalem Conference on Soviet Jewry, we are now facing the total end of Soviet emigration,' * Kotlowitz said.
a soldier in the streets of Tel Aviv because he thought he was dressed sloppily. But, by the same token, Eitan commuted the sentences of two soldiers convicted of mlirder — soldiers who had reportedly broken basic disciplinary guidelines.
Eitan, as one Israeli military analyst wrote recently, had a double-standard in viewing Arabs and Jews. Butjie was not a . racist, the writer said. "He simply believes that the Arabs want to destroy Israel. . ."
El tan's views are fairly popular in jlsiael^ but he claims he is not interested In capitalizing on them and going into politics. He may be true to his word. But no one would be too surprised if politics lures him into its lap eventually.