Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 30, 1983 Page: 19 of 24
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Israel at the Crossroads
people who build bridges ... Our task is somehow to lessen angers and
look for ways of peace. In the annexation of the West Bank there is not
peace, there are only swords.”
Rabbi Joseph Sternstein, an outstanding spokesman for Israeli causes
and immediate past president of the American Zionist Federation, said:
‘‘Israel has every right, militarily, morally to settle Judea and Samaria. This
is a simple truth of security. Jews are not displacing any Arabs. That is a
myth.”
Discussion moderator Rabbi Stanley Berkowitz, of Washington, D.C,
said, ‘‘This is not a debate between hawks and doves, the left or the right.
We are all for the peace and security of Israel... We differ on the price that
we are willing to pay for peace, differ on religious diversity, differ on
territories — this is a growing debate.”
Rabbis Hertzberg and Sternstein agreed major differences exist between
Sinai and the West Bank. The Egyptian desert represents land with set
boundaries while Judea and Samaria comprises part of what Prime
Minister Begin and others believe to be ‘‘a biblical right belonging to the
Jewish people.”
“Begin was willing to give up Sinai to obtain Egyptian assent to what he
really cares about, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza District,” Hertzberg
said. He said Begin had been consistent in his belief that the West Bank
territory belongs to a biblical Israel.
Hertzberg said in 1936 the British Peel Commission stated that the land
m of Israel was to be west of the Jordan and the Arabs were to live in the east.
B This, he said was accepted by Jewish leadership of Weizman, Ben-Gurion
and others but the Revisionist “never accepted partition.”
Hertzberg noted, in 1949 Begin stated that “you may have created a par-
tition State but I will overturn partition. Hertzberg stated, no one should
have been surprised when Begin left the Golda Meir unity government in
^ 1972 when she agreed that UN resolution meant that the basis for a future
f peace would be the return of most of the West Bank. “He (Begin) would
L have none of it,” Hertzberg said. He added if the Begin view prevails, the
Jewish people will be confronted with supporting a forced subjugation of
the Arab population on the West Bank. He asked “are you prepared to
defend such a policy? I am frightened at the prospect.”
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Disagreeing with Hertzberg, Sternstein stated that “the issue today is
what is the life security of Israel, not whether Begin is a Revisionist or
Revisionist policies.” He said present policy represents the consensus
view of the Israeli people,” even the plan proposed by the late Yigal Alton,
which envisioned border points along Jordan, insisted that military forces
were going to remain on the West Bank.
He said from 1947-1967, the Jordanians did not permit a single Jew to set
■f foot in Judea and Samaria. “Let us not forget that Jordan doesn’t only want
B a return of the West Bank but East Jerusalem too.”
“I see nothing wrong with 100,000 Jews settling in Judea and Samaria;
this is our moral right,” Sternstein emphasized.
“I, however, feel that the tension of Israel at the Crossroads highlights
very serious problems within the American Jewish community. I submit
that it is this area which we, at this Convention of American Rabbis, must
consider,” Sternstein said.
Sternstein stated American Jews are floundering seriously in grasping
and understanding their self-identity and the roots and anchors of their
existence as Jews. For the historic presence of the State of Israel — a
millenially epochal situation — does not permit one to float in the rarified
air of identity by Synagogue and religion alone. American Jews love Israel,
are exultant with Israel, worry about Israel and don’t know how to handle
this “hot potato” of Israel with regard to personal and family life.
Sternstein proposed that “It is time that both Israeli and American
Jewish comunities launch a discussion vis-a-vis two problem areas of
ideology: First, the nature and substance of self-identity of the respective
communities, and second, the nature of the instrumentalities of impact
upon one another.
“It may very well be time for a central body, perhaps the Conference of
Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, to organize and convene an
American Jewish Assembly, comprising democratically elected represen-
tatives of American Jewry. Such an Assembly, consisting of delegates who
ran on clear political and ideological positions, would deal with issues and
adopt statements which would truly be reflective of the views of American
Jews. Such a procedure would go a long way to scotch the false ex
cathedra pronunciamentoes of those — media and persons alike — who
would be publicly noted as speaking for nobody but themselves,” he said.
They go well together...the Ameri-
can Flag, created during our war for
independence, and the Statue of Li-
berty, France’s gift to us.
Both represent freedom, an ideal as
old as man... an ideal given reality
and meaning in the United States of
America.
Freedom is a torch — a spotlight.
Our nation represents history’s most
glowing example of the accomplish-
ments of a free people.
This is our heritage of which we are
proud.
To make our torch of freedom shine
brighter, we must rededicate ourselves
to the bedrocks of freedom on which
this great nation has been founded.
Have a safe and happy Fourth of
July!
central Bank s Trust
777 West Rosedale, 332-7921
, JUNE 30, 1983 TEXAS JEWISH POST
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 30, 1983, newspaper, June 30, 1983; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753875/m1/19/?q=j+w+gardner: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .