Friday, November 23, 1973—THE BULLETIN—7
Perusing the Press --
hristianity can't be trusted in times of need
BY REVEREND DR. WILLIAM WATTERS Jerusalem Post
''ditor's Note: Dr. Watters.who at present in Jerusalem, and )te this article on Oct. 14, is raduate of the Lutheran Thco-ical Seminary and holds a torate in Judaica from Iowa te university. He has occupied umber of pulpits in the United hodist Church.
HE TELEPHONE is silent;
of our usual Christian friends e come to call. There was only
other time I can remember o quiet in this office, and that
during the Six-Day War." hese were the words of a resentative of the Israeli Min-y of. Christian Affairs whom sited nine days after the start e war.
nd the tragic point that he making was that Christians srael had once again closed selves up in their private aves, and had onceagain drawn selves together for solace the quiet and somewhat great-security of their Christian toes.
e Christian community in I was silently waiting and hing the events of this new
is the silence and reluctance e Christian churches to take ction whatsoever - either for gainst the State of Israel -compels this writing, ed we turn our attention to orrors of the Second World to cite what has become the ic example of Christian ce in the face of imminent r to Jewry?
ed we be reminded of what tianity could have done to nt or retard the Holocaust, iled to do? ink not.
need merely turn our hts back some six years to ix-Day War. For if a pat-of Christian response to in danger exists, that pat-initiated by the period of the ;aust certainly repeated itself ig the time of the Six Day
-tements were made "as were )priate" to the importance situation at hand: the World il of Churches (and num-other ecclesiastical bodies) tched well-worded telegrams primary parties; thoughtful tians throughout the world ; their heads and called for
lowing the Six Day War, the nee of the State of Israel andled in a number of ways
le Christian world, each of denominations working (to
ng degrees) to fit Israel into own world theological pie-
t-1967 opinion on Nostra felt that it was a step in ight direction to deal with uestion of Deicide and the , but at the same time con-to overlook past millennia ristian persecution of Jewry,
as well as the present reality of the State of Israel.
My point, therefore, and first of all, is that in times of stress for the Jew, the Christian has been found wanting in terms of word followed by deed.
The newly-discovered apparatus of the ecumenical dialogue is seen at such times for what it clearly is: little more than a well-intended academic exercise which fails to spring to action or cause action - either positively or negatively — on the part of the participants in times of crisis.
It would seem logical thai when one party of a dialogue is in danger of death, the other party, if truly interested in the other, would come to his aid.
Such does not, once again, seem to be the case as evidenced by the present Christian response here.
The "Jewish question" has been answered historically in three ways: conversion, expulsion, and annihilation. The second is a sub-
stitute for the first when it does not work, and the third is a substitute for the second when it does not work.
The urgency of our words rests upon the fact that the third alternative to the continuing presence of the Jewish people is once again being attempted: the threat of genocide exists for Middle-East Jewry and for the State of Israel.
For a multitude of reasons Christians have an obligation to face the present issues in the Middle-East crisis head on: the Jewish-Christian dialogue has shown that the covenant of God applies to both Christian and Jew.
As such, each is responsible for the other's welfare.
Christians may celebrate the existence of the State of Israel because Christ was and remained a Jew, and because of the essential Jewishness of Christianity.
Israel is the child of Jewry which now lives after the loss of six million parents.
Whether out of remorse for past injustices to Jewry by Christians, or through the realization that every minority people
JEWS EXPLOITING U.S. FOR PROFIT, SAYS PROF.
Jewish Post and Opinion
WASHINGTON, DC. - "The United States is now being exploited by one of its tribes -the Jews - for its profit."
This is the view of Dr. Thomas. R. Stauffer. research associate of Harvard's Centre for Middle F]ast Studies.
Addressing a conference the day before the Yom Kippur War On "The Mounting Energy Crisis and the Middle-East." .sponsored by the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Management and Development Institute, Stauffer told the assembled 200 corporate executives that in effect the Jews form a fifth column.
Some of his accusations, . as reported in the Near East Report were:
• The current Middle-East conflict is an ancient form of tribal confrontation, in modern garb - otily this time between "the sheikhs and the schlocks:"
• It is an old conflict started by the Israelites' conquest of the Canaanites, and renewed by "the second conquest by Jews of Palestine in the 1930's and 40s;"
• Whereas the traditional great power role in regional conflicts has been to exploit the conflicting tribes for its own interest, the United States is now being exploited by one of the tribes - the Jews - "for its profit;"
% Where Arab terrorist groups did not exist, Jews set them up and ambushed them;
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and where they could not be set up. they sent in their own men in camouflage;
# The ■ Arabs "have as little chance in the face of Jewish invasions as did the Czechs or the Poles in World War il:"
# ".As long as the U.S. continues to be identified with thi%s Israeli policy„{)f Lebcnsraum. we run the risk of conflict with our allies;"
# Europe and Japan will split with the United States over the oil issue, partly because they are more vulnerable to a cut-off,
. but also because "there is no Jewish fifth column there -I know of no member of the Japanese Diet who is in any way beholden to Israeli money."
A call for a U.S. policy reversal came also at that time from Lawrence Mosher In the National Observer, who declared that the United States "cannot avoid" dependence -on Arab oil "to drive cars, heat homes, and use electricity."
Mosher urged President Nixon to follow the morality of President Eisenhower, who "succeeded in extracting the Israelis from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in 1957, even without the incentive of oil."
Columnist Joseph Harsch, of the Christian Science Monitor, urged the United States to "use the leverage it possesses over Israel."
He suggested that the United States might "shutoff" or "ration" arms to Israel and "withdraw t,'ix immunity" from the United Jewish Appeal.
Argentine press has pro-Arab bias
BUENOS AIRES —Coverage of the Middle-East war was heavily biased in favor ofthe Arabs during the first days of the conflict, Dr. Nehemia Resnizky, secretary of the DAI A, reported recently at a special session of the Argentine Jewish representative body called to assess the situation in the wake of the war.
Dr. Resnizky said that measures to counter the distorted presentation of the news were undertaken by the DAIA, the Buenos Aires Kehilla and the Argentine Zionist Federation.
has the right to self-identity and land. Christians are now called to the challenge of Israel.
I am afraid that nothing more than empty, actionless statements will be heard.
No Christian dares to move out of his safety to hoist a fresh Arab flag here, or, conversly, to volunteer his service for Israel.
Few Christian funds will arrive; little Christian muscle will be used in the battle for or against Israel.
Christians will remain silent, watch and wait.
This past century has shown that Christianity is not to be trusted by Jewry. in times of need.
As Herzl went with hat in hand to Rome for assistance in building a Jewish State in Palestine; as world Jewry called upon Christianity to place pressure iq>on the Reich to end the slaughter of European Jewry; as Israelis waited patiently for their telephones to ring and mail to arrive in support of the Six-Day War -so once again Israel will be sadly mistaken if in this war she looks for prompt and 'valuable' assistance from Christianity.
Though I deeply wish it were not so, I must predict that 'concrete' Christian action simply will not come.
F'or Jewry, even the most enlightened Christians of the past have been notoriously neutral and ambivalent toward their needs as a people.
So 1 believe they will be again.
As Christians, therefore, our cry to Israel must be, "Don't count on us to help! Help yourselves; no one really cares!
Don't trust us!
"In the saftey and quiet of the lecture hall and dialogue table we will voice all sorts of aid and comfort.
"Yet when your life is challenged, don't look to us.
"Save yourselves!"
Harsh words, but I believe historically realistic words. Advice which Israelis and world Jewry have found to be true long ago.
"Every man for himself!" seems to be the cold reality if the survival of 'Israel and her people, for Christianity does not seem to show tangible response in periods of Jewish oppression.
The Jew might call upon Hillel to convince the Christian of his obligations to his fellow man: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me; but if I am only for myself, what am I; and if not now, when?"
Such words are a call for responsibility and action both from the individual and from the group.
Yet I sadly doubt any such reaction will take place in Christians,
During the past year, the Israeli Government has commented on unpopular governmental actions against Palestinian terrorists by saying, "We must do what we think is right for us, not what the rest of the world believes to be correct. We stand alone."
On the face of it, such remarks seem cold, and unconcerned about the world around Israel.
Yet in light of the present situation and the danger which Israelis are in, this policy seems to be the only means of defence which works, at least until Christianity comes to her aid.
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