Oregon daily emerald., October 22, 1973, Page 4, Image 4

Commentary
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"Israel wants
■\
peace!”
By ABRAHAM KATAN
Since the Israeli independence war in
1948, when the combined armies of
seven Arab states invaded Israel trying
to drive the Jews into the sea, there has
been and still is a state of war between
Israel and Arabia.
Why? What seems to be the
problem? Why can’t we Arabs and
Israelis come to settlement of the
problem, and once and forever live in
peace, which the Israelis wish so much.
The Arabs say there are reasons. First,
it is their land, second, the Palestinian
refugees, the homeless, jobless,
nationless almost starving people who
were pushed away from their homeland
in Palestine and under no condition
they have to return to Israel.
One can be very influenced under this
merciful, tragic picture and it may
sound as if the Arab leaders really
concern and care about the refugees.
But unfortunately, the opposite is the
truth.
Let’s dig to the roots of the problems,
and see why and how the refugee
problem was created.
We have to bear in our minds that the
Jews were the original people of the
land of Israel, Tlie land had known
many conquerors; Assyrians, Persians
and Babylonians. The close of the
classical period found the Jews in
Israel under the Roman Empire, and
when the Roman legion crushed the
Bar-Kochva revolt and exiled the Jews,
the re-named ‘their’ country Palestine.
Two thousand years later, Israel was
conquered by many other successive
foreigners. In the sixth century,
Mohammed’s followers, spreading the
Moslem religion with the sword, swept
out of the Arabian desert and
conquered a large part of the
Mediterranean world, including Israel.
Jerusalem was theirs by force. Where
Solomon’s Temple long ago had stood,
the Arabs built the Mosque of Omar.
They ruled for the next five centuries.
But then more conquerors came, the
Byzantines, the Seljuks, the
Crusaders, the Mongols, the
Mamelukes, the Otomans and the
British. The Arabs are one of many
conquerers the land had known. They
had never had an Arab sovereign state
there, though. But Jews in the
dispersion dreamed of returning or at
least having gone to the promised land.
The injunction, “If I forget thee, 0
Jerusalem, letmy right hand forget her
cunning” remained part of every Jew’s
prayer.
V.
After the terrible Nazi massacre of
the Jews in Europe, they had nowhere
to go and came back by mass to Israel.
The Arabs didn't like the idea and
started creating problems. Many Jews
were killed under Arab pogroms. The
problem of the Arab-Jew was referred
to the U.N. which on November 29. 1947
declared an establishment of two
states, Jewish, where the majority
were Jewish, and Arab, where the
majority were Arab, joined in economic
union.
The Jews accepted the plan, although
it only satisfied part of their national
aspirations. The Arabs rejected it
outright and declared they would fight
to thwart partition by force of arms.
Big Arab terrorist activities started
taking place—hit-and-run raids on
Jewish villages. Those attacks in
creased, and the whole country soon
was involved in riots and pillage.
We have to keep remembering that at
that time (like always) the Arab did not
have a sovereign state, there. The land
was ruled by British Mandate. When
the British Mandate was over in May
14, 1948 Israel declared its in
dependence. On the same day the
combined army of the states of Egypt,
Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi
Arabia and Yemen invaded Israel from
every side in an attempt to crush the
new nation.
With extreme brutality the Arabs
fought against Israel when their main
purpose was to wipe out the Jewish
population. On May 15, 1948, Assan
Pasha, then secretary-general of the
Arab league, declared: “Hiis will be a
war of extermination and momentous
massacre that will be spoken of like the
Mongolian massacres and the
Crusades ”
The first result of the Arab war on
Israel was a mass exodus of Arabs to
the neighboring countries. The problem
of the Arab refugee was created by the
brutal invasion of the Arabs to Israel,
and the Arabs don’t deny that they
started that war.Israel was not the only
victim of the war; there was another
victim—the refugees themselves,
which their departure was powerfully
ordered by the Arab leaders them
selves.
When this war against the Jewish
community in Israel took place, and
even before the end of the British
Mandate in Israel, the ex-Mufti of
Jerusalem, who was the Arab’s leader
then, from his headquarters in Cairo
gave an express order to the Arabs in
the Jewish territory of Israel to quit. He
and his cousin. Jamal Husseim, in
Jerusalm ordered the Arabs to abandon
their villages and towns and carry out a
mass exodus.
On October 12, 1963, the Cairo daUy
Akhbar el-Yom, recorded: “May 15,
1948 arrived...and the last British
soldier left Palestine. On that very day
the Mufti (of Jerusalem) appealed to
the Arabs of Palestine to leave the
country, to leave Haifa and Jaffa and
other cities...because the Arab armies
were about to enter and fight in their
stead against the Jewish gangs and oust
them from Palestine.” The Arab ar
mies were sure of their victory and
wanted to look as a victorious liberator
army.
The Jordanian daily, ‘Falastin’,
wrote on February 19. 1949: “The Arab
states, which had encouraged the
Palestine Arabs to leave their homes
temporarily in order to be out of the
way of the Arab invasion armies, have
failed to keep their promises to help
these refugees.”
The Arab leaders incited this exodus
in order to create an artificial Arab
“refugee” problem which would excite
the public fervor in Arabian countries
and force their undecided governments
to invade Palestine. Furthermore,
world public opinion would be returned
against the Jews.
On the other hand, the Israelis tried
very hard to arrest the Arab exodus by
every means available—radio, hand
bills, sound-trucks. In Haifa for
example, one of the biggest cities of
Israel with 70,000 Arabs and 80,000
Israelis, the leaders of both sides met to
sign a truce and discuss a way of
allowing the Arabs to stay in Haifa.
British police (which did not favor the
Jews at all) reported to Jerusalem
headquarters on April 26, 1948: “Every
effort is being made by the Jews to
persuade the Arab population to stay
and carry on with their businesses open
and to be assured that their lives and
interests will be safe.”
So you, the reader, can see for
yourself that the accusation that the
Jews had thrown out the Palestine
Arabs in order to fill the land with
Jewish refugees is very shamefully
untrue.
The Arab governments demanded
that the refugees would be permitted
unconditionally to return to their
homes. The demand may sound very
humane and full of love. It is true that is
has even been suggested by the U.N.
Resolution of December, 1948. But it is
only part of the truth. 'Die other part
isn’t mentioned by the Arab6. Only the
whole truth is the real truth. The part
that is not mentioned is about a
peaceful Arab-Israeli settlement. It
was suggested by the U.N. Resolution
that realizing the importance and
extreme urgency of the refugee
problem, it can’t be isolated from an
overall peace settlement. Israel wants
a complete assurance to her security.
It can’t accept the returning of the
refugees unconditionally while the
Arabs at the same time declare war of
extermination, blockade and boycott.
The truth is known to all, the Arab
states do not want to negotiate and not
even to take compensation which Israel
is willing to pay.
Today the situation is worse. Arab
children were educated to hate blindly
and they advertise their hatred and
aggressiveness in the U.N. itself. They
claim that the refugee return will be a
means to destroy Israel
The Jordanian Government Radio in
Amman December 26, 1960 announced:
“Jordan will accept no solution to the
Palestinian problem that does not in
volve the liquidation of Israel.”
Gamal Abdul Nassar, in an interview
in September 1, 1961 declared: “If the
Arabs return to Israel—Israel will
cease to exist.
It must be understood now that Israel
has no desire whatsoever to commit a
suicide.
It is perfectly clear, as a former
representative of Unrua in Jordan,
Andrew Bodil,wrote in a letter to the
U.N. in 1953: “It is quite obvious that
the Arab leaders don’t care about the
refugees. They don’t give a damn
whether the refugees are dead or alive.
They want to keep the refugees as
miserable as they are as a weapon
against Israel and as a sore against the
United Nation.”
Israel wants peace. Where are the
Arab governments? Israel is willing to
meet Arab representatives any place,
anytime to settle all problems, in
eluding the refugee one. The Arabs
refuse. There is no other way but war,
they say. And when it will come, if it
will, they will cry again as babies: “It
isn’t fair, we lost. It just isn’t just.”
And I ask you now—“Is it?”
Note: This article first appeared in the
Emerald on April 11, 1970. Katan
graduated from the University with a
degree in architecture last June. He left
for Israel, his homeland, only last week
to join the fighting. The article was
suggested for publication by Fred
Levy, coordinator of the “Israel Mus*
Live” booth at the EMU.
-Commentary
Arab blackmail: Let them eat oil!
By Ron Eber
The headlines read, “Arabs Cut Oil,”
thus bringing the fear of blackouts, cold
homes and no gasoline to the “energy
crisis” Scared American public. Is this
fear justified? Are we, in fact, dependent
on Arab oil? Must we abandon our support
of Israel for Arab oil? The answer is
emphatically—N'0!
Oil from the Arab nations (not including
Iran) is only 800,000 barrels per day (four
per cent) of the 17 million barrels used in
the United States. This, in turn, meets only
1.76 per cent of our total energy needs.
Loss of Arab oil will not cause blackouts.
1.2 million barrels of oil per day are used to
generate electricity. 80 per cent of this 1.2
million barrels (960,000 barrels) is im
parted from all sources. The exact amount
of this from the Arab countries is
unknown; however, even if all the Arab oil
went toward electrical generation (800,000
barrels), which it does not, we would not
jeopardize our electrical supply because
oil meets only 15 per cent of our electrical
power needs.
Loss of Arab oil will not make it a long,
cold winter. According to Secretary of the
Interior, Rogers Morton, we can save
350,000 barrels per day by simply turning
down our thermostats 3 degrees. "Hiis is
nearly one-half the imported Arab oil and
a sizable savings from but one of many
possibly sources.
As of Sunday, October 21st, Saudi
Arabia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Qatar,
Kuwait and Abu Dhabi have cut off all
their oil exports to the United States. Along
with the five per cent production cut by the
remaining Arab countries; seven-eighths
of all the Arab oil we imported has been
cut off. Ye the lights still burn and our
homes remain warm.
Oil companies and the electrical utilities
have been predicting that in the next
decade we will need to drastically increase
our imports from the Arab nations. Will we
be able to sustain our present losses with
this prediction of rapidly rising energy
demands? the answer here is em
phatically—YES !
U.S. government estimates show that
during this coming year alone we could
save 3.3 million barrels per day; more
than three-times all the Arab oil presently
imported. In the next decade our savings
can be even greater. Industry spokesmen
predict a 7.3 million barrel per day savings
by 1980. Reducing automobile weights
from 3,500 lbs. to 2,500 lbs. will save 2.1
million barrels per day, an amount equal
to more than the Alaska Pipeline will
deliver. (Aut06 presently account for one
third of our total yearly oil use.) Improved
insulation can cut one-third to one-half o
our home heating energy use
recycling promises to cut our energy needs
even more.
We need not fear the loss of Arab oil Nor
should we entertain the idea of abandoning
Israel for Arab oil. Our support of Israel
must be based upon its right to exist as a
free nation. The atempted Arab blackmail
presupposes our dependence on their on
This we are not, and we can learn to do
without it. 4 ,
Oil import figures; U.S. Dept
Commerce . „
Eber is a graduate in Urban Plann g