Page 4
The Jewish Floridian and Shofar of Hollywood
Friday, April 25, 1975
J
Israel's Anniversary
Israel began the celebration of her 27th anniver-
sary of independence last week on the eve of Iyar 5.
This is a time beset by fateful questions for Jews
both in Israel and abroad. It is not hard to sense that
the primary spirit is less optimistic than cautious, al-
though, as Hans Habe points out in his essay in The
Jewish Floridan Anniversary Supplement (see Sec. C),
we agree that it is time for all of us to return to the
mood before the Yom Kippur War.
This does not mean, whether they were right or
wrong, cockiness and arrogance, as the Arabs came to
see the predominant quality in the Israelis before the
1973 war.
Rather it means a certainty of purpose and of di-
rection that seems to have slipped from our hands dur-
ing the last year and a half at least, in any case,
since Israel's 25th anniversary.
"We must wonder at the strange ways of our peo-
ple's history and their capacity to make suffering into
the seed of survival," President Ephraim Katzir noted
on the eve of the 27th anniversary.
The endangered little community of 1948 has be-
come a nation of close to three million persons.
Its agriculture and industry are remarkably devel-
oped. Its capacity to build and to defend itself in the
face of fierce onslaughts of enemies repulsed again and
again all these are qualities that should leave Israelis
and their Jewish brethren abroad far from dispirited,
as they seem to have become.
To see ourselves clearly now, we need in President
Katzir's view, the perspective not only of 27 years, but
of the many centuries of pain and sacrifice, faith and
vision that led to the emergence of the Jewish State in
our time.
We agree.
Are There Any Questions?
The latest news about the return of the bodies of
Israeli soldiers carries with it the explanation, if there
needs to be an explanation, of why Israel wants some
guarantees for all the concessions she, as winner, is
being asked to make.
The return of bodies was one of the major items on
the agenda at Km. 101. Israel had just turned the war
around and surrounded Egypt's Third Army.
The U.S., in conjunction with her criminal partner
in detente, the Soviet Union, had just demanded that
the surrounded Egyptian army be permitted to go free
with no concessions whatsoever from the Egyptian
masterminds of the war they launched and lost.
To forestall the possibility of yet another loss of
face by the Egyptians, Israel acceded. Within days,
Egypt rewrote the history of the Yom Kippur War, star-
ring herself in the role of winner.
Also within days, she flouted her agreements on
the return of bodies an item Cairo knows is emo-
tion-laden for the Israelis.
Nothing has happened since those days nothing
until the other day, when Egypt finally shipped back
some Israeli bodies, but only on condition that they be
traded for convicted Arab terrorists now in Israeli
prisons.
Any questions, State Department, et al., as to why
Israel places so little faith in Arab promises and even
less in the mere Arab "good intentions?"
. wjenlsti Florid fan
M 01 muiu wunm
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Request.
Just Who's Attacking What?
I WRITE this two months to the
day that a column of mine
appeared here (Feb. 14) entitled
"Bronstein Makes Us Feel
Moral."
Since then. I have been regaled
with letters, largely angry' letters,
attempting to rebut my remarks.
EVEN NOW that so much time
has elapsed, and the flow of read-
er comment seems all but to have
abated, an occasional letter still
manages to surface filled with
the kind of vituperation charac-
teristic of them all.
From the beginning, the most
angry reaction was by one, Ar-
nold Markowitz. of The Miami
Herald, whose kinder comments
suggested that:
 I am "asinine";
 "It was entirely within the
province of the Herald's editorial
page to suggest a stiff sentence";
 "Any validity your opinions
may have collapses with your
sarcastic description of the
Herald's coverage of the case";
 "That's my work you're writ-
ing about, and I don't like your
tone."
THIS IS the order of Marko-
witz' argument, but certainly, the
last is the most important for
him
What was the column in ques-
tion all about?
It was simply thisthat San-
ford Bronstein's criminal activity
was investigated, prosecuted and
punished with an order of zeal
far out of proportion to the zeal
Mindlin
against any of the criminal ac-
tivities of any single Watergate
criminal or alleged criminal; that
the $867,750 Bronstein stole was
a childish prank compared to the
prize the Watergate crowd tried
to walk off with, which is to say
the sanctity of this nation as a
republic and the revered sense
of its highest principles as set
forth in the Constitution of the
United States.
NOW, to Mr. Markowitz' last
and punitive intent brought
point, which is, as I say, the most
important for him, the rest being
mere window dressing for a
bruised ego. Nothing else that I
had to say about the essential
issue is of any significance to
him. At the outset, he dismisses
my Watergate comparisons as
"fetched from far out in left
field."
I am sorry to have to burst the
bubble of such monumental self-
importance. But the fact is that,
in writing the column in ques-
tion, never did Mr. Markowitz or
the Herald or the Herald's di
torial page enter my mind even
one single time, except when it
came time to take notice of th.
propagandistic atmosphere
*hich the case was tried.
Arrogant forces of power A
ways find it hard to believe that
in the end, they are undone by
anonymity. In monolithic expres-
sions of opinion, no single person
can lay claim to individuality. He
who does, fails to survive. That
Is the paradox, and the pain, of
monolithic power.
AND SO, when I was writing
my Feb. 14 column, never for a
moment was I aware of the exis-
tence of Mr. Markowitz, or aware
that Mr. Markowitz was the re-
porter assigned to the Bronstein
case. I might as easily have
thought of Newton's third law or
Max Planck on quantum mechan-
ics.
And if I had thought of Mr.
Markowitz, or known of hu
special significance to the case,
still it would make no difference
because he and his reporting
were all beside the point.
What was the point, and what
I wrote about in the Feb. 14 col-
umn in question, was not the
worthiness or the accuracy of his
reporting in the Bronstein case,
but the sanctimoniousness of the
entire procedure infecting both
the courtroom and the commun-
itya tone I can not attribute to
Continued on Pace 9-

Volume 5
Friday, April 25, 1975
Number 9
14 IYAR 5735
Official Israeli map showing Israeli concessions.
-25-7S