Page 4
The Jewish Floridian and Shofar of Greater Hollywood
Friday .September 7, 1979
Death as Boomerang
In the worst sense of the word, there is
something medieval about world revolutionaries in
the cause of "freedom," meaning freedom as only
they see it, who shout "Death!" to their enemies.
An example is the nauseous demonstration of
some 150 American Blacks this week before the
Israel Mission in New York City, who called for
death to Israel, Zionism and just about every other
symbol of their rage they could muster.
We had hoped that this sort of demented
behavior would be avoided in our own country, where
there is an equally rich and varied history of political
dissent and disagreement without violence.
Instead, they seek to rekindle the flames of their
revolution in the 1960's which, in the end, consumed
even one of their own sacred leaders, Dr. Martin
King, Jr., in an ironic twist of fate ironic in the
sense that Dr. King was opposed to violence above
all things.
We could remind the Black demonstrators this
week that violence begets violence or that those who
live by the sword shall perish by the sword. But these
are aphorisms whose meaning has been blunted by
unjudicious repetition.
Iran is a better example. Many of those who
cried "Death to the Shah!" and who were violent in
the cause of the Ayatollah Khomeini are themselves
dead now, long since judged guilty of some unnamed
revolutionary miscarriage by the very change they
believed would liberate them from ODDression.
Dr. Goldmann To Go A'Calling
There is something of the senile in Dr. Nahum
Goldmann's persistent public statement that he
would not hesitate to meet with PLO Chief Yash-
Arafat if an invitation to him to do so were
forthcoming.
Dr. Goldmann's persistence has the vocal edge
of aged petulance and egotism to it which, in itself,
would be his own business but for the fact that
neither the world, nor Yasir Arafat more specifically,
can forget that he is former president of the World
Jewish Congress.
In our view, Dr. Goldmann will do inestimable
harm to Israel, and in the wake of the Andrew Young
cause celebre and the Pandora's Box that has
opened, if he manages in the end to meet with Arafat.
It is specious for him to reason that today he is
a private citizen, no longer identified with the WJC
and therefore able to do just exactly what he wants.
Neither Arafat nor the rest of Araby sees him this
way, and the propagandist^ coup in their favor such
a meeting would bring is incalculable.
'Holocaust' Again
We note with interest the second national
showing of Holocaust due beginning Sept. 10 on
NBC. We say "interest" because we do not waver
from our original evaluation of the TV melodrama as
a fictional representation of the Jewish agony during
the Hitler era with little connection to historical
accuracy.
On the other hand, we have never hesitated to
report and observe upon the incredible impact of
Holocaust showings in Europe and especially
Germany, where the production led to an enormous
raising of consciousness to the genocidal murder of
the six-million.
If it is melodrama and frank soap opera methods
that were needed to achieve this end, then the pro-
duction deserves praise without searching for other
reasons to criticize it either historically or ar-
tistically.
Long may it run.
Christian Voice: Juggernaut
TELEVISION'S evening news
the other night featured a presen-
tation on the Christian Voice as
an outfit determined to rally
Christians around fundamental-
ist biblical principles.
Once organized, they would be
lobbied by Christian Voice tele-
vision and radio programs and
Christian Voice publications on
major political issues and told
how to vote on these issues and
which candidates to support as
representative of the Christian
point of view.
What the TV newscast did not
report was that Christian Voice is
a rapidly-growing, extreme right-
wing organization headquartered
in Pasadena, Calif., with
seemingly unlimited resources to
proselytize against political
liberalism and its spokesmen.
IN ITSELF, to oppose
Mindlin
political liberalism, its principles
and leadership is not necessarily
either bad or dangerous. These
are value judgments as naive as
preaching the "Christian view-
point," whatever that may be.
Besides, there are liberal prin-
ciples and leaders aplenty who
ought to have been sent out to
pasture long ago, so bankrupt are
.w
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they Nith in vision and commit-
ment.
But to oppose political liberal-
ism or, in fact, any honest
political point of view across the
board is very dangerous, indeed.
Its intent is to squelch opposition
and, in the hands of Christian
Voice, to squelch opposition in
dogmatic parochial terms.
In the end, given the pos-
sibility of success, Christian
Voice can call anyone or anything
of which it disapproves
"unChristian," and 50 or 60
million Americans whose minds
it hopes to enlist and enslave will
vote them out of existence.
POLITICAL liberalism, the
inaugural enemy of Christian
Voice, is just the beginning of the
joy ride. After that, there is the
whole nation which can come
under fire as "liberal" or "un-
christian" or anything else
Christian Voice may choose to
call the latest enemy if only
because neither what is "liberal"
nor "unChristian" has been
scientifically defined by the
organization, or even defined just
plain a priori.
Whatever Christian Voice dis-
approves of can be run over by
the most handy Christian
elephant. Simply charge it with
being "liberal" or "unChristian"
in the same way that the
Inquisition once dealt with these
juridical matters, or that Joe
McCarthy dealt with Com-
munists. No other categories are
really needed.
What was most objectionable
about the television report the
other night was that Christian
Voice was made to look like just
another one of those well-
intended, born-again Christian
operations whose adherents are
plain weary of evil in all places,
high and low, instead of the
extreme right-wing activist
political force it aims to be.
TO BEGIN with, Christian
Voice already has a registered
lobbyist in Washington. He is
Gary Jarmin, whose credentials
include five years in the same
Continued on Page 9-A
;. :*:*:M?
Black-Jewish Struggle
It's Really a Struggle for All Americans
Friday, September 7,1979
Volume 9
15ELUL5739
Number 18
By LEEK-THORPE
If Black and Jewish relations
were what they should be, we all
would have seen that United
Nations Ambassador Andrew
Young's resignation is not an
ethnic or racial issue but a
national one that deserves to be
seen in that light.
Young's resignation would
never have become the issue it
has if it weren't for the more
serious underlying issue that
of relations between Blacks and
Jews and Blacks and whites.
Throughout the 1960s civil
rights movement. Blacks worked
together with Jews in a shoulder-
to-shoulder alliance to achieve
the common goal of better human
conditions for all: education,
employment, housing, and full
freedom to live as equal citizens.
Each group made its sacrifices
for the other, because it knew
that its common ideals depended
on just that, their commonness to
all. By definition, the abolish-
ment of racism, prejudice and
ignorance means for all peoples.
BUT BY the 1970s both
Blacks and Jews somehow had
become more passive and less
communicative, not only to each
other but on national and in-
ternational issues as well. There
has been less working together
and less speaking together to the
point that we not only address
issues as separate groups, but we
also have lost that basis of trust
that once assured us of our unity
in the struggle.
Andrew Young's resignation
only calls attention to just how
far Blacks and Jews have drifted
away from each other, from our
common goals, and from the time
when we were able to talk and
work together.
We have to rebuild the bridges
and reopen the lines of com-
munication quickly, honestly and
courageously. As one prominent
IIlack leader said, "We need to
have dialogs, not just one
dialog."
YOUNG'S PAST record as an
individual is also beside the
point; whether it was a fine
record or one flawed by mistakes,
his most recent action made his
resignation unavoidable. Young
had no choice but to resign, and
President Carter had no choice
but to accept that resignation
after Young held a meeting with
a PLO official and failed to in-
form the State Department, while
U.S. foreign policy is committed
not to speak to the PLO as long
as it refuses to acknowledge
Israel's right to exist.
And no wonder Israel objected
 any nation so treated by the
government or representative of
its ally would have expressed its
anguish. Andrew Young himself
is irrelevant to the issue if he
had been a Jew, the same thing
would have happened.
But somehow, every time a
voice is heard on behalf of Israel,
it becomes a "Jewish" issue, and
therefore a Black-Jewish issue
this time, whereas in reality we
are talking about an issue for
America and for democracy
everywhere.
YOUNG'S RESIGNATION is
in fact as far as can be from being
a Black-Jewish'' issue at all.
But unfortunately, due to our
present strained relations, it is as
handy an incident as any to
throw into that other free-for-all,
as in fact Israel itself is so vic-
timized by that same senseless
conflict.
But if we can rise above the
rhetoric of who is to blame, the
real issues behind Young's
resignation are clear: the process
of U.S. foreign policy-making, its
integrity and consistency, the
welfare of the Middle East, and
above all, the peace America is
trying to establish there.
We must restore the relations
between Blacks and Jews so that
when events occur they will not
needlessly turn into racial or
ethnic causes but can be
discussed and resolved on the
merits of the issues themselves,
rather than what appears to be
the benefit to be had by special
groups at the expense of all of our
ideals.
jam-