4-The Canadian Jewidi News, Friday, Feb. 2,1973
Editorial page
An independent Community Newspaper serving as a forum for diverse viewpoints,
Directors: Donald Carr, Q.C. Murray B. Koffler Albert J. Latner Ray D. Wolfe -Managing Editor, Sol I. Littman Editor, Ralph Hyman
Assistant Editor, Lewis"CeVendel . Director, Quet)ec Bureau, Mark Medicoff Advertising Manager Douglas G. Gibson
Vol. XII No. 56 (729)
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Freed from Vietnam....
Will Nixon attempt to pressure Israel into an imposed peace?
Now that President Nixon has obtained '"peace with honor" in Vietnam, and paid tribute to the memory of 46,000 Americans who died in this war to save Indo-China from communism, will he turn his undivided attention to the Middle East?
Philip Givens, the president of the Canadian Zionist Federation, thinks there is a good chance the man in the White House may decide to move into the Middle East and push for an imposed settlement of the issues that divide Jew and Arab. And he is somewhat apprehensive of what might happen if that comes to pass.
What troubles Givens and a lot of other people as well, is that a U.S. president who could give the order that sent more than 150 giant B-52s on as deadly a bombing mission as any in modern times, to smash the heart of North Vietnam, doesn't fit the role of international peacemaker. The credentials are lacking, along with humanism and decency and understanding. Nixon didn't start the war in Vietnam, but the record of his four years in office clearly suggests that, had he been a president a decade ago, he would have had no qualms about becoming involved in this most immoral of all wars.
Israel has repeatedly declared her opposition to an imposed settlement of the:assue% in the Middld East;" thaf C a setQemenf thrust upon her and her enemies by the great powers acting in concert. Such a settlement would do no more than bring a temporary respite and slackening of tensions.
Nixon the Peacemaker is a title the president has not earned. But he wants to be remembered in history as a statesman of international stature, and the Middle East may prove an irresistible temptation for him to once again involve himself in the fate of nations far from American shores.
The president may prove himself a steadfast friend to Israel in the days ahead, but the Jews of the world have to be shown that principle is not to be sacrificed to political expediency. If Israel continues to insist that peace miist come from within and not
Redefine issiie
from without, would President Nixon, with most of the high cards in his possession, insist on Israel agreeing to the intervention of the big powers?
And what if Israel continued to oppose such a development? Would the United States use its enormous economic leverage to force such a settlement? Now that he is free to a large degree from Vietnam's entanglements, and has another four years of White House occupancy, will he live up to the fair and reasoned statements he made concerning Israel during the 1972 election campaign?
These are questions thoughtful people are asking, and so far, there are no answers. In one of his recent speeches, Richard Nixon said the American people had learned one lesson from Vietnam that it would take to heart, and that was never again to become physically involved in the affairs of other nations.
We fervently hope this lesson, learned at such terrible cost in human lives, applies to future U.S. policy as regards the problems of the Middle East. Neither intervention nor isolationism is the answer. What Israel wants is the justice too often denied small powers; recognition that she has the right to exist as a free and independent nation.
We will have to wait iov the answers to th»?-quesition* ttiatw.have be^a troubling us. , The moral bankruptcy of the U.S. leadership that brought the republic to the edge of" anarchy; that drained away its wealth in a senseless military adventure at the cost of domestic social betterment, does not augur well for the future.
As for Israel, she will continue to do what she has consistently done since the state was created; maintain, a constant alert and a reliance on her growing strength, backed up by Jews of the Diaspora who have made the concerns of .Israel their concerns.
The ceasefire in Vietnam may herald a brighter day for that part of the world ravaged by war for a generation. Let us hope that, if and when that day dawns, it will mark the beginning of a genuine upturn in relations between Israel and the Arab world.
Pornography should be regarded
as
In the past, when municipal authorities tried to prevent the deterioration of some of their proudest streets, Victimized by an oVei;rconcentra'tion of topless bars, pornographic film houses and sleazy bookstores, they have resorte<i largely to efforts at censorship.
Police have been sent in to raid the bars, confiscate the. books; harrass the owners and seek convictions under the obscenity laws. As a result, they come into con-, flict with organizations dedicated to civil liberties that regard such actions as an interference with freedom of expression;
■No knowledgeable person wants a policeman to determine wjiat books he may read or what pictures he may look at. As a result, -people like. Toronto Mayor Davids
m
Crbmbie, who called for some control, sounded like a foolish, retrograde puritan.
The effort to reverse blight by enlisting obscenity laws is obvioiisly doomed to failure and derision. Increasingly, court decisions in both Canada and the United States have supported the claims ofthe civil libertarians. In doing so, they have inadvertently removed the one instrument available to fight this social blight.
However, if the.issue can be redefined and seen as a problem in pollution, a whole new repertoire of legislation may become applicable. The members of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association can then, in good conscience, support the effort Of po-. liticaljeaders to apply brakes without feeling - they-have joined the rednecksTahd hardhats;
Xhe- Lastmans deserved better treatment at hands of press
Wives of settlers in a new Jordan Valley village are shown outside dining hall. New settlements on the west bank of the Jordan River will specialize in producing agricultural products. The settlements will also fulfill a valuable role from the standpoint of security.
Israel turning West Bank into tropical greenhouse
By ROYSTON ALLEN JERICHO-
Israel is turning the West Bank of the Jordan River into a tropical greenhouse which It hopes will supply fiuit and vegetables to Europe during the wrinter months.
And from a security angle the settlements being put up to grow these crops are an excellent line of fortresses and watchpoints stretching along the cease fire line with the Hashemite Kingdoni of Jordan.
The dry countryside being settled and tended is a strip about 18 miles wide and 70 miles long-the same piece of land that Deputy Premier Yigal Allon wants Israel to keep in the event of any peace agreement • with Jordan and definitely if there is not.
Over a dozen settlynents dot this parched landscape today and 'at least another dozen are on the drawing boards. '
The Israel-based World Zionist Organization (WZO)-which has very close ties with the Jewish Agency-gets permission to settle the land from the Israeli government, then clears and prepares it. A Nahal soldier-farmer iinit then takes over. A few dozen teenagers doing-their military service plant and look after crops, at the same time keeping a wary eye on the surrounding hills and on the purple-misted iijoiintains of Jordan in the distance. When they finish their two or three year service after having served in a number of settlements about half of them will form a civilian nucleus and go to a settlement where the army is moving out, turning it into a kibbutz.
Eventually, all the settlements will be turned over to civilians in this fashion, about half the current collective farms around here are already in civilian hands. The army still remains the predominant force in the area though, the youth on the civilian settlements still do their reserve duty every year-very often with military units around their home kibbutzim.
The WZO is the planning force behind these lonely outposts. Before a single tent or building goes up a mastei- plan of what the settlement will look like in the future is made. Every addition to the military camp being set up has its place in the master plan of what will be there when the miUtary move out and the civilian kibbutzniks move in. ■.
No official will state exactly how far into the future the plans go but it is obvious that these are not temporary measures. Some areas have drip-irrigation systems installed which are not economically feasible for short term projects, according to irrigation experts. At least 10 years are needed to recoup the expenses of setting up such a system the experts say.
New wells are being drilled by an Israeli company and the water piped to where it is needed.
Before the Six Day War in 1967, the only irrigation in the eastern part of the West Bank was by gravity feeds. Over half of the water was lost by seepage or evaporation.
Israeli agriculture experts were called in immediately after the war to advise the local Arab'farmers in this area how to get the best results from their crops, ^he open channel system of irrigation was virtually done away with and more efficient methods introduced. . ■ ■ '
Arab farmers were also taught how to plant vegetables which needed less water and less care, eggplants, onions, squash and lettuce for example. Israeli experts also introduced new strains of vegetables which proved more resistant to disease.
In the arid areas north of here where there are no Arab farmers the Israeli settlements raise mangoes, papayas and gladioli, crops which were totally unknown in this immediate vicinity. .
Date palm trees were imported from California which cangrow using saline irrigation, Arizona cattle Were brotight in specially bred to withstand the fantastic heat.
In the settlements of Kalia on the shores of the Dead Sea to the south, the fresh water springs of Eyn Feshka will be used to fill fishponds. Rich earth from the Hula Valley in Galilee will be transported down here in lorries to be used as vegetable beds.
The desert ■ is being made to bloom again and just as important in.many eyes, the occupied land is being settled.
The regional military commander who makes frequent tours of the Jordan Valley views the new settlements as "clusters of Jewish eyes, Jewish hands on Jewish guns.;' He said."when my troops see the lights of Jew'ish settlements behind them then they know why they stand on gliard."
Cannibalism
ts
to save life
1. What would be the position of a Jew faced with cannibalism or death from starvation, as was recently the case following
' the aircrasti. in the Andes mountains in South America?
Retponse
There are a few particularly gruesome references, of cannibalism in the'Bible (Leviticus 26, 29: Deuteronomy 26: 53-57: Lamentations 4; 10) and the medieval Sefer Hasidim mentions werewolves and vampires who feed on human flesh and drink human blood. Apart from these the subJiBCt is virtually ignored in Jewish literature except in response to the monstrous blood libel when the Jewish teachers were able to demonstrate that the notion that Jews ever used human blood in their rites was preposterous.
In point of fact the Codifiers are hard put to discover any explicit prohibition of cannibalism. Human flesh does not fall under the heading of terefa for example (see Mai-monides, Yad, Maasholot Asurot 2: 3 and commentaries).
Nachmanides (commentary to Leviticus 11; 3) remarks in this connection on the prohibition of having any benefit from a corpse. Undoubtedly all this is to be explained on the grounds that cannibalism is so naturally repugnant that it never posed a real, practical problem and could be ignored. However, since the general rule is that things normally forbidden are permitted where life is to be saved (Pesachim 25a and very frequently) it follows that cannibalism is also permitted if this is the only way in which life can be preserved.
2. I understand that wine in unstoppered bottles is not kosher because of the (now remote), danger of idolatry. Is this correct? Why do some super-Orthodox people ex-, tend.the pi:ohibitiQn to open bottles touched by non^observant Jews?
RESPONSE
You are correct that the original prohibition of heathen wine was because of idolatry i.e. the wine may have been used as a libation in idolatrus worship, but the talmudic rabbis extended the prohibition to all Gentile wine on the grounds that to use such wine might lead to the kind of social intercourse that might encourage intermarriage.
Many authorities, conscious of the origin of the prohibition in the fear of idolatrous practices, relaxed many of the laws for Jews who live among Moslems and Christians who are not idolaters. But few favored the complete abolition of these laws which is why many Orthodox Jews still keep some of them.
As for your second question, some Orthodox Jews extend the prohibition to the wine of Jews who openly profane the Sabbath oh the groijnds that a person guilty of such profanation is to be treated as a Gentile. However, many eminent authorities have argued that such an attitifdo is somewhat ridiculous nowadays wlien a profanation of the Sabbath by Jews is no ' longer an act of open defiance of Judaism but is rather due to a failure to appreciate the great value 6f Sabbiath observance in. the Jewish scheme of things.
Jewish day schools are affected by new legislation in Quebec
The wife of the Jewish mayor of North. York, the mqst heavily populated Jewish municipality in; Ontario, was kidnapped and: by some fortunate chance, safely released:..
Peculiarly, her safe return, instead of being greeted with relief, was greeted with scepticim and even derision by th\ press. Instead of sympathizing with a woman's fears and a. family's, anguish, tfiey sought to Expose what, they so glibly an(l callously assWmed was a hoax. ' '
For the first time in the history of crime, a kidnapping victim rather than the kidnappers, was: compelled to submit to a lie detector test in order to establish her credibility.
The Lastman's may not be to the taste of newspapermen. They may disapprove of their flamboyant style, but the fatnily has done nothing, to merit the supercilious cynicism and downright crude behavior exhibited by some Of Toronto's reporters. The peculiarity of this attitude is even less understandable in view of Inspector Adolphus Payne's consistent: statements thai he had no doubts whatever about the truth of Mrs. Lastman's story.
Well,; the boys in the newsroom: no longeiv wear their hats at the back of their heads, but sometimes they still play at lieirig reporter rather than working at it
By MARK MEDICOFF — CJN Quebec Bureau Chief MONTREAL-
During the last two yearSi the Quebec government has introduced a series of sweeping social changes that have seriously affected the Jewish community. -The destiny, of the Jewish day school system is most directly affected.
Under the new law, a relatively recent piece of legislation, the government promised to defray the costs of maintenance and curriculum for schools which t:he government deems to~be.'in the publicunterest' . The only schoolMn the Jewish system to benefit from the act to date is Ecole Maimonide, ^hich is deemed in the 'public interest' because French language instruction IS one of its main features.
Another act, the - five-year old Bill 37, introduced during the Recline of theiJnion Nationale, introduced lhe>lconcept of igovern-
Torah, the Jewish People's School and others : have benefited by more than $7.5 million:-^ Jilfany associate school could meet the pedagogical, standards set by the government, r and. have the proper kind of facilities, then the government would-on an annual basis^ pay for the non-secular part of the teaching program,'' said Morton Bessner, chairman of the Congress Committee on the Position of Jews in the Educational System. . Bessner said the community was informed m 1972, that for June^1973, Bill 37 would no longer be applicable "and it will probably, mean a shift from BiH 37 to Bill 56."
A persistent, underlying objective of the Bourassa government is the strengthening-of ^ the French language. What is deemed, in thepublic interesty can reasonably be the . fostering of the French, lang'iiage-for all ethnic groups ^ ^
bessner believes thd government has: eliminated Bill 37 'Iin order to tidy up
ment funding of schools associat^^ with,^-rr^h^^^^W and sundry pieces, of legisr
but not forming part^of, an existing. School structure. , ^
Under the latter act the United Talmud
lation under the heading\of 'education,> so fhat there -can be. a prppei" and intfeUigent administration of education in'theorovmce."
Traditionally, the Bourassa government has never used 'coercive' methods to attain, their goal. However; the government could demand a; gradually increasing use of French in school systems it supports...:
"You're getting into'the whole- area of how -persuasive the government is going to be in its 'French first' program. 1 think It's a matter of gradualism rather than shot-gun tactics," said Bessner.
Most communal leaders agree that the issue of French language implementation is a "reality the community must come to grips with."
Throughout the ceiitui;tes ^e Jews^have adopted the language ^f the country where' they earned their sustenance. It would, "therefore, not be uiiprecedented.V: Should Jews living in Quebec be more at nome in the French langilage^ than in the ;English.
The real proble^m fOf Quebec Jews duriiig the next 20 years Wed\not be the langiisige issue. The probleirtx^f fundamental "human resistance to social change'will,surely be paramount.