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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 20, 1981
PAGE 13
Here in Israel this beleaguered nation of three million people feels in
creasingly isolated from both its allies and enemies. The AWACS victory
for the Saudis was unpopular, to say the least. Worse yet, from the point
of view of leaders in Jerusalem, is the encouragement of Washington, even
though cautiously expressed, for the so-called eight-point Saudi Arabian
peace proposal. The plan is practically a dead issue as far as Israel is
concerned. It calls for a retreat from reality and would return Israel to
the exposed position that it had before June, 1967 as if the war which broke
out that month never occurred.
The Saudi plan is fuzzy on whether Israel is specifically included in the
ambiguous seventh point with regard to the rights of states in the region to
live in peace.
A Saudi official at the UN claimed that the proposal "does recognize
Israel." However, the Saudi government later said that the official had no
authority to interpret the deliberately vague wording.
The proposal about East Jerusalem becoming the capital of a Palestinian
state is totally unrealistic. The Israelis would never allow the capital's
division without a fight to the death. Construction in this new united cap
ital is underway everywhere, especially in the former Jordanian part of the
city. Yesterday, I drove by the Hebrew University campus on Mt. Scopus.
This campus was caught behind the Israeli-Jordanian cease-fire line in 1948
and was unusable until 1967. During this 19-year "time cycle" a new univer
sity was built in the western part of the city. Now that the new "old"
campus has been completed with striking new buildings, the older temporary
campus is no longer in use except for special functions. It
is
absurd to
think that the Israelis will hand over this citadel of education to the PLO.
The grim determination of Israel to hang onto what it has was forcefully
impressed upon me the last two days.
Yesterday we visited Masada, the
desert fortress by the Dead Sea where zealots withstood the might of Rome to
the death in 70 A.O. I'm sure most of you saw the television program which,
of course, was not very accurate. Masada is a symbol of Israel's vow to
defend their new state to the death. It is not so much a "complex" as a
national mind-set much on the same order as that of the Soviet Union which
has vowed "never again" to allow an attack from the West.
Another forceful impression was a visit this afternoon to the Museum of the
Diaspora on the campus of Tel Aviv University. This relatively new museum
is rather more a massive exhibit on the theme of the scattering and wan
derings of the Jewish people in Asia, North Africa, Europe and elsewhere
from the time of the destruction of the temple in 70 A.O. to the "ingath
ering" of their descendants in Palestine in this century. It is a gripping
and tragic tale of repeated persecution in one host country after another.
The impression left is that the Jewish race today in "Eretz Israel" is say
ing to a hostile world: "Never again. Just you try to budge me."
Tomorrow, God willing, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Fahey and I hope to visit
Israel
I
s President Yitzhak Navon, who only a couple of days ago visited
Egypt and invited Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Israel. Mr. Mubarak
accepted.
Hopefully some more next week.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau