The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, June 2, 1972 - Page 5
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A   happy lot of Israeli soldiers celebrate die Six-Day War victory in 1967.
Recall the tense days prior to Six Day War
By MOSHE RON
CJN Israel Correspondent
On the eve of June 5th 1972, five years after the Six Day War, it is worthwhile dealing in detail with this historic event for the State of Israel and the Jewish people the world over.
In the tense days of May 1967, when the former Egyptian President, Abdul Nasser had expelled the UN forces from the Gaza Strip and Sharm el Sheikh, he proved that he was preparing for ■mr against Israel. He moved 100,000 soldiers and hundreds of tanlcs into Sinai, into Sinai.
The Egyptian soldiers were received by the -local population with enthusiasm and war hysteria. Nasser announced that the hour of the "big reckoning" with Israel had come. The Egyptian radio played military marches and television announced that the end of Israel was at hand. Ahmed Shuk-heiry, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, shouted into the radio "Itboh, itboh - slaughter the enemy!"
Israel waged a desperate diplomatic campaign in many countries, and especially with U Thant, UN Secretary General, to influence Nasser to refrain from attacking Israel. But the effrontery and audacity of Nasser, who was sure of victory, grew daily and he categorically refuted any diplomatic intervention. At the former airport of Bir Gafkafa in Sinai (today Raf-idim), he announced scornfully in front of members of
the Egyptian Air Force, that if General Yitzhak Rabin and his army should dare to come, "I am ready for him". He added "Ahlon Wasahlon" (a sort of "Shalom Alei-chem" in Arabic). "We shall show him. . . ."
As history, the Six Day War turned into a debacle for the Arabs and a great victory for Israel, enabling it to occupy vast territories which it holds to the present time and will hold until the day of direct negotiations between Israel and its neighbors for a real and lasting peace.
The miracle happened, which international military experts and commentators regarded as an event which had hardly happened before in history, that an army ^ch was sure of victory, had been completely destroyed in only a few days.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, had declared a few hours after the outbreak of war on June 5th, 1967, that the Israeli air force had completely destroyed the Egyptian air force and airfields, and that the fate of the war had been practically decided.
The war was a good opportunity to put an end to the long-time menace of the Syr^ ian army on the Golan Heights. The Syrian army was expelled from the Golan and Israeli soldiers occupied their fortified positions and the town of Kuneitra at a distance of 50 kilometers from Damascus.
The main victory was the liberation of the Old City in Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall
and the Temple Square, after a separation of 19 years. The Old City was liberated by an assault of Israel parachutists under the command of General Mota Gur, who hoisted the flag of Israel on the Wailing Wall.
Many parachutists fell in this bloody battle. When the parachutists fought their way inch by inch through the narrow streets of the Old City, to the Wailing Wall, Gen. Gur sent a historic cable to the Israeli Chief of Staff: "The Temple Square is in the hands of Zahal".
There were unforgettable scenes of joy and tears. When Gen. Shlomo Goren, the chief rabbi of Zahal, arrived at the Wailing Wall, prayed and blessed its liberation, officers and soldiers of Zahal approached the Wall ' and kissed its ancient stones fervently with tears streaming. Many of them were not religious, but they recited the chapters of the psalms with great emotion and enthusiasm. ■
Today, five years after the Six Day War, Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, and the former Chief of Staff, General Haim Barlev, assure us, that Zahal has never been so strong as today. It has the most modern fighting planes, tanks and weapons. Zahal's strength is the best and only assurance of safety, preventing the Arab enemy from renewing the war. We can never know what Sadat might do, but we know one thing for sure: Zahal is ready for any eventuality,
By J.B. SALSPERG
For a couple of days I became immersed, I for the first time, in the atmosphere of a B'nai B'rith convention and found it to be a-novel experience. It happened at the ninth annual get together of the Canadian District of BE which took place in Montreal during the third week of May.
Of all the conventions I attended - and they were many - this was the most informal and, .most irreverent of all. The hundreds of delegates and their spouses dressed and behaved as if at a high-spirited outing in the countryside, although the locale was a posh midtown hotel. Good natured ribbing was directed at almost everyone, but most commonly at the upper echelon of officers. And yet, these same people, when broken down to smaller groups at workshop sessions, became transformed into serious, keen and deeply concerned men and women who approached the special area of their assignment or interest with the utmost of responsibility.
Is this a contradiction? Does it raise the question as to which is the real B'nai B'rith? "The answer to this question is not unimportant.
To some the BB is beyond criticism while to others it is beyond redemption. So what is a balanced view of the BB? Is it important to have such a view? Yes, very much so, since the B'nai B'rith is the largest Jewish organization in the world today with some 500,000 members; it operates in some 45 countries, guided by an international council; enjoys special status at the U.n; where it maintains a full time U.n. office; is one of the major suppliers of background and well-researched material on every important Jewish and often non-Jewish issue of the day; is a -social and political force in most areas of
Jewish concern. Clearly, one may approve or disapprove of the BB but no one can be indifferent to it.
I have heard it said that the B'nai B'rith is just a middle class, social organization that imitates the many non-Jewish service clubs in America and that the "Sons of the Covenant" are, in reality, the Jewish counterparts of Babbitry with their emphasis on ritual and ceremonial. I will not argue that some lodges may not bear a resemblance to the popularly known U.S. service clubs. But my limited personal experiences with BB lodges would supply only the scantiest of evidence to substantiate the contention of B'nai B'rith's harsh critics.
Even the most socially oriented lodges are deeply involved in raising and providing funds ' for HiUel, for anti-defamation work, for Israel, for aid to Soviet Jews, for the defence of Jews in Arab and other lands of their persecution, for human and social rights legislation etc. These are hardly the horizons of Babbitry.
But there is more to the total picture of BB. My own observations are that once a lodge has met the basic financial obligations ot its district (which also includes the means for its international activities) such a lodge is free to concentrate on whatever special interest it prefers. Some will choose to beactiyeonlyin local areas - helping the blind, the aged, etc.-while others may dedicate themselves to cultural pursuits.
In Toronto, for instance, a women's chapter is almost exclusively involved in theatrical pursuits. It was this chapter that planned and produced the very impressive and original dramatization of the Holocaust that was the feature of Toronto's last ghetto memorial. In Winnipeg, on the other hand, there is a Yid-
dish speaking lodge that is dedicated to the retention and popularization of Jewish culture . Jn the Yiddish language. ~ As for myself, the BB stands out primarily as a vital force in the world-wide defence of Jewish interests and rights. I witnessed the emergency convention of BB International in Israel just prior to the Six Day War.
Nasser was threatening war, the Soviet Union had moved in massively with its arms and military personnel and the clear voice of the BB was raised in that critical hour.
Not only the government leaders of Israel but many embassies of friendly countries kept a watchful eye on the proceedings. The speeches and resolutions of that conference were front page news in many countries and especially in theU.S.
I also saw the BB in action at the historic Brussel's conference for Soviet Jews a little over a year ago and was very impressed by its role. And I saw the dedication of the delegates who attended the panel on Israel and Soviet Jewry at the Montreal convention of egates who attended the panel on Israel and Soviet Jewry at the Montreal convention of the Canadian district a few weeks ago. (My presence was for the purpose of contributing to the examination of the problems of the Jews in the USSR).
I concluded: That the B'nai B'rith isavery dynamic organization that consists of many parts; that it is exactly what the members of each unit make of it; that it has the potential for making worthwhile contributions to the life of most of our communities; that those at the head should more consciously try to achieve that potential and, above everything, that it is a very valuable force in the co-ordinated Jewish efforts on behalf of World Jewry.
Israel: A land of bureaucracy
By RAYSTON ALLEN
JERUSALEM-
Come to Israel, land of milk, honey, sunshine and red tape. Milte^^of It.
Despite Premier Golda Meir's recent call for' less bureaucracy, this tiny country still has more red tape per capita than any other civilized state.
Mrs. Meir said "bureaucracy is weakening the Jewish state from within" when she addressed a meeting of senior civil servants here recently.
She was dead right. Many new immigrants are packing their bags and leaving Israel because they find it impossible to adjust to bureaucratic situations here.
One disappointed Canadian father of five told me why he could not settle in Israel:
"We came here, rented a house and started looking for a place to buy," he said. "I wanted to invest in various businesses that I could operate from here, but when I found out just how much bureaucracy I wouldhayetogo through, I just backed out and decided to go home to Canada."
He was lucky, money was no object, he just caught the next flight back.
And Israel lost a family of seven, untold investments in dollars and even more important - good will.
When that family is asked what Israel is like they will say "Wonderful what's been done there, but. ..."
' At'a>recent meetii^g of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) the chairman disclosed that one in five new immigrants from the North American continent return during their first year here.
When complaints from individuals about bureaucratic procedures appear, in the local press, they are often accompanied by a reply from the spokesman of the ministry concerned, when that ministry deigns to answer.
Many of the spokesmen'at least acknowledge that bureaucracy is delaying or forbidding the compainant a basic right, and promises are made to rectify the situation.
Such promises are rarely kept.
The new immigrant, once he gets over the problems of adjusting to new conditions, ways of life etc., then has to put up with the normal bureaucracy that the average Israeli faces.
Why is Israel so bureaucratic?
The reason for most bureaucratic foul-ups lies in the fact that Israel has too. many ministries.
Premier Golda Meir attributes this to each political party wanting a share of the governmental cake. Each group in the coalition wants a department to take care of.
The only solution would be if one party got a sufficiently high majority at the polls to streamline the cabinet when it got in power. As long as Israel keeps the proportional representation system of election this is unlikely to happen. ' _
Another reason is that government ministries offer notoriously low salaries - .the average clerk gets less than $200 per month - but they do offer security.
Once a person is on the permanent staff of a government office he is virtually impossible to dismiss without being paid damages proportionate to the length of service.
Consequently many workers become "featherbedders." .
More staff are taken on to get some semblance of efficiency in the department until the budget is stretched to its limit.
The end result is that each person works far below his capacity and the offices are crowded with clerks doing a minimum of work.
What is the prospect for a situation improvement in the near future?
"Very unlikely" said one veteran Israeli journalist. "The situation will go on until either a miracle happens or the messiah comes. And if he does come he will soon go bade frightened of the number of forms he wUl be asked to fiU out.
loninlein - the dty of theiworld - bas^ m Some ue old and woraraome
are young and uprightly,   "niia is a lane Wtlie NahaUit Shhre aecltor.   (IPPA Photo)
Dear Editor:
Jews have learned, through very harsh lessons, that silence is more powerful than words. Many of those who suffered and died during the Holocaust did so because others had chosen to remain silent. It was murder through silent agreement.
When the Orthodox Jews were systematically and purposefully excluded from the Memorial Service for the Six Million, the only voices heard were those of condemnation. Many Orthodox Jews were forced to take an apologetic stance even though it was the Orthodox Community which was excluded from the service by the nature of the place of the service. In Toronto, only the Orthodox were.excluded.     _ ,
The Toronto Rabbinical Fellowship, plan-_ned as. a vehicle of communication between the clergy'of the various persuasions, remained silent while the Orthodox rabbinate was attacked for wanting to maintain its religious practices. The Toronto Rabbinical Fellowship is made up of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform clergy. Yet, hone of the Reform nor of the Conservative clergy raised tteir voice in defense of the Orthodox decision. None of the Reform nor of the Conserva-.ttv^ clergy put pressure on the organizers of the service to include the Orthodox Jews. ^
Yetj this very same ToronteJ^ Rabbinical Fellowship is sponsoring a Christian-Jewish Dialogue. No one has any objection to Christian-Jewish Dialogue. After all. It is a charade that has heen carried/on for centuries, Th^ Tbronto Rabbinical Fellowship finds it more suitable to have a detente with the Christians than to defend the right^f the Orthodox Community to be part of the greater Jewish Community.
Rabbi M. MitcheU Serels
The Toronto Rabbinical Fellowship. was established as a viehicle of communication between the clergy of the various persuasions: It has failed. I am therefore requiring that my name, as an Orthodox Rabbi, be "^^stricken from the list of members. There is no channel of communication because there is no concern. In the case of the stance of the; Toronto Rabbinical Fellowship, history repeats itself. Silence is stronger than words.
Rabbi M< Mitchell Serels PeUh Tlkva Anshe CasUUa The Sepbardlc Synagogue I ' torontd
Dear Editor:.
United Nations representatives met in Chile as a committee of UNCTAD, to plan how rich nations can help poorer nations.; This is an important and worthwhile cause: The meeting cost the nations hundreds of thousands of dollars. But what did those assembled do? They spent three days to resolve that Israel should withdriaw from Arab territories so that the Suez Canal may be opened.
It was none of their business. They are not qualified to determine boundaries of nations after a cease-fire agreement. Theylippar-ently_do not know that by international law areas taken in a defensive war reinain with the successful nation until - a peace treaty between the parties involved decides otherwise V
Did they not know-that the main body of the U.N-. in resolution No. 242 did not ask for withdrawal from all the territories, and not until peace was declared and secure and defensible borders established? And besides -Israel has never objected to the opening of the Suez Canal.
It puzzles me what prompted Britain and France to vote for this "out of order" resolution when they themselves sent ships and planes to attack and close the Suez Canal eleven yearsjarlier. Why do 70 nations spend so muchTtime in attacking a small progressive modern nation of less than 3 million people, a nation that haJs niever lifted a finger against anyone except in self-defence? Can Jt be because It is the only Jewish nation In the U.N. and the only democracy in the Middle East?
Henry S. Rosenberg Xoroato