Black Editor Warns of Rising Tide of Pro-arab Feelings Among Black Militants

A leading Negro newspaper man warned here last night that while black Americans are generally sympathetic to Israel, a “rising tide of pro-Arab feeling” rooted in a variety of causes, is becoming increasingly evident among segments of black militants, intellectuals and persons living in the inner cities. Howard B. Woods, editor and publisher of the St. Louis Sentinel, presented this analysis of the division of black opinion on the Middle East conflict to a conference of local Jewish communal and student leaders convened here by the B’nai B’rith International Council and the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. The “popular pattern” of most black militants, Mr. Woods said, “is to be anti-establishment. Since they view the establishment as being pro-Israel, they feel they must be pro-Arab.” Mr. Woods said that anti-Israel feelings among black people in underdeveloped urban areas could possibly be attributed to “long dormant attitudes on domestic conditions rather than being based on International situations.” Mr. Woods, who was part of a group of ten publishers of Negro newspapers that toured Israel on a ten-day study mission last year, said that “great masses” of black people have “an affinity and warmth for the land” of Israel as “the seat of Christianity.”

But, Mr. Woods added, this feeling “does not necessarily spin off to include the Israeli people and their objectives.” He said that some blacks feel the United States is “fearful of black communism” while “trying to co-exist with white communism. This brings about an attitude, especially among black intellectuals, of a double standard in international affairs which conditions thinking on other international matter, including the Middle East.” Mr. Woods said that the “presence of exiled blacks in Arab countries should not be viewed lightly in the context of black opinion toward Israel.” The publisher called his visit to Israel a “unique experience” that impressed him with the Israeli people, their technological advances and the concept of the kibbutz as a means of development. He said that in order for the U.S. “to push for withdrawal of military personnel in Egypt and develop a blue-print for a Middle East settlement, there must be a transformation of American opinion–including that of blacks–to convince us that there is more involved than the localized Arab-Israeli problem. What is involved,” he said, “is a major Soviet attempt to extend its domination over the entire Middle East.”