Readers’ Point of View: Three Discussions of Arab-Israeli Discord

Transcribed from the clipping

“READERS’ POINT OF VIEW: Three Discussions of Arab-Israeli Discord To The Editor Of The Courier-Journal: I wish to correct several factual errors which appeared in the letters of Edwin Hanna and Virginia Matthias in Readers’ Point of View December 15. In speaking of the regrettable Kibya incident, Mr.

Hanna states that the attack was in retaliation for two or three Israeli killed. He fails to mention that since 1950, 421 Israeli were killed by Jordanian marauders. Of these murders, 107 occurred from 1952 until October of this year.

The good lady from Berea says the Arabs cross the border illegally merely to visit their kinsfolk in Israel or cross into Israel (a great many of these infiltrations occur in the dead of the night) to ward off starvation.

The fact is that since 1950 when Great Britain, France and the United States guaranteed order and security in the area, there have been 128 cases of sabotage, 866 cases of armed attack, and 3,263 cases of robbery by the Arabs. The Arabs have rustled cattle, blown up factories, trains and homes, and have even stolen telegraph poles and cables. Mr.

Hanna says that General Bennike reported to the United Nations ‘that the responsibility for the major incidents are about equally divided.’ The fact is that from June, 1952, to June, 1953, the Arab-Israel mixed Armistice Commission ruled against Jordan in 159 cases as against Israel in 25 cases.

In conclusion, I wish to say that the only hope lies in peace between the Arab States and Israel. This the United Nations can accomplish by insisting that the Arab States engage in peace negotiations with Israel. Otherwise, border incidents will continue to occur in the tensions of the uneasy armistice. RUTH N. FONAROFF. Louisville.

Peace Needed in Palestine The two letters in The Courier-Journal, one by Edwin B. Hanna captioned ‘Israel-Arab Border Trouble,’ the other, ‘About Arab Infiltration,’ by Virginia P. Matthias, could easily be answered point by point; however, the crux of the problem is rooted much deeper than mere border incidents.

It has been said that there would be no anti-Semitism if there were no Jews, and there would be no Arab-Israel tension, if there would be no Israel, but God willed it otherwise.

The aim of the Arabs (feudal chiefs, not the masses) is to destroy Israel by various and devious methods, such as the boycott, propaganda, using the Arab refugees to incite world opinion against Israel.

It would be well for all of us to remember, when the Nazi hordes were at the gates of Alexandria and were about to converge on the Holy Land and the entire Middle East, the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Isaac Halevi Herzog, spoke up to a trembling and fearful world and calmed their fears. He said, ‘Do not despair.

The divine scriptures only tell of two destructions; therefore have faith there will not be a third destruction.’ And so it was. The Nazi hordes were driven back and their retreat did not stop until they surrendered unconditionally.

The same is true today with regard to the Arab chiefs and their backers and sympathizers the world over, and, contrary to and in spite of their condemnation of the godless and the anti-god, as the Communists are called, they also are in the same category; because they also are attempting to defeat the will of providence. Senator Guy M.

Gillette, of Iowa, of the Foreign Relations Committee, who has spent some time in the Middle East and has also visited Syria, spoke in Chicago November 15 on, ‘The United States, Israel and the Middle East.’

He said, ‘When Ralph Bunche dealt with the Palestine armistice talks on Cyprus some years ago, he told both sides, “You sit here until you reach an armistice agreement, and the one who walks out will be the one blamed for the collapse of these negotiations”.’

He asked further, ‘What lies behind the hesitation to take the same forthright stand in the present case?’

Continuing, Senator Gillette said, ‘without peace there can be no possible defense against aggression from outside the area, no security against internal Communist subversion and seizure of power, no adequate economic development for any of the countries, singly or together, no possible solution of any of the grave social, financial, and political problems that cry for swift remedy.’

Let us pray that the great powers insist that future border incidents are rendered impossible by removing once and for all their primary cause—the absence of peace. HARRY SIMON. Louisville.

Arabs in Israel Called Happy Edwin B. Hanna in Readers’ Point of View states that ‘The Courier-Journal has been accused by M. Heller of being anti-Israel and pro-Arab. Perhaps The Courier-Journal is more pro-truth. I appreciate its being willing to show both sides of the question.’ If Mr. E. B.

Hanna really knew the truth, he wouldn’t have made the statement: ‘Israel has admitted that regular troops were involved in the Kibya massacre of 66 people.’

We may have complete confidence in the official statements made by the former prime minister of Israel, Ben Gurion, and the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Abba Eban, in which they categorically denied The Courier-Journal’s ‘pro-truth’ story that Israeli regular troops were involved in the Kibya incident. Mr.

Hanna said ‘Arabs were driven out of their homes to make room for Israel.’

The real truth of the matter is that the Israel government has been begging the Arabs to remain in Israel, promising them all the rights and privileges; but the Arabs were persuaded by the Mufti and the British to leave Israel in order to create out of them an army for the future invasion of Israel.

According to the information received from people who recently visited Israel, the Arabs, who didn’t listen to the Mufti and the British but remained living in Israel, are nicely progressing materially and morally and are very happy. Louisville. M. HELLER.

Shocked at Segregation View I was really shocked when I read the opinion of George C. Allen, who favors segregation.

I wonder if he actually believes that the ‘financial success’ of a small segment of the ‘colored race’ is sufficient criterion for ‘maintaining for their children as fine schools as whites,’ even with government and state aid, while maintaining segregation. What real good could this dual system incorporate?

How does this idea of separation affect the thinking and attitudes of both the colored child and the white child? No good can be derived from such a system because of the added burden on the government, federal and local. The end result is a heavier financial weight on every adult resident, white and colored.

The colored child will automatically have a feeling of being below the normal level of an average American child. The white child will feel superior. We can readily discern the product when both of these American children have become adults.

To say that ‘the spirit of Communism is abroad in our land, seeking to cause ill feeling between the white and colored people’ as Mr. Allen remarked, implies that the present condition of segregation is Utopia, and is highly acceptable as being good for all. I wonder how Mr.

Allen would feel if fate and God had put him in the situation of being born with a colored pigmentation. Would he decree upon himself such segregation? The whole is equal to the sum of its parts; America is, therefore, equal to the sum of all its citizens. EDWARD E. THORNTON. Louisville.”

Context added by this archive

The other half of an argument this archive has been holding one side of. Three readers in Louisville answer two earlier letters by name — Edwin B. Hanna’s Israel-Arab Border Trouble and Virginia P.

Matthias’s About Arab Infiltration, both printed on 15 December — and they argue over Qibya, over who left in 1948 and why, and over whether the paper is pro-Arab or, as one of them puts it, pro-truth. It is the fullest multi-round exchange about Palestine between ordinary American readers anywhere in this collection. And it is not alone in the column.

Two letters to the right, on the same page of the same paper, a reader answers another reader who favours segregation: The whole is equal to the sum of its parts; America is, therefore, equal to the sum of all its citizens. Louisville is arguing about Palestine and about its own schools in the same six columns, eighteen months before Brown reached Kentucky.

Cite this item

"Readers’ Point of View: Three Discussions of Arab-Israeli Discord," Courier-Journal, 28 December 1953. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1953-003. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1953-003