U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger was named recipient today of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. He shares the award with Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese Politburo member with whom Dr. Kissinger negotiated the Vietnam cease-fire. The announcement of the award was made by the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian parliament. The prize money which this year amounts to 510,000 Swedish kroner, about $120,000, will be awarded on Dec. 10. Dr. Kissinger is the second Jew to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968, Rene Cassin, of France, head of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, won the coveted prize.
Dr. Kissinger received the news about the award while he was at the White House talking to officials about the Middle East war. During a press briefing later at the State Department the Secretary of State responded to the peace prize announcement by stating: “Nothing could give me more impetus than to end the war in the Middle East and move from there to a decent and lasting peace in the Middle East.” Dr Kissinger is the first Secretary of State to receive the peace prize while in office. The others to receive the prize after leaving the office were Elihu Root (1912), Frank B. Kellogg (1929). Cordell Hull (1945), and Gen. George C. Marshall (1953).
According to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry the famed ballet dancer Valeri Panov was beaten up by the KGB in Leningrad yesterday. He was picked up by the KGB and detained for alleged “trafficking in foreign currency.” He was released last night. Among the many contributions received today at the headquarters of the New York United Jewish Appeal was a check for $5,000. What was unique about the contribution was that it was presented in sign language. The presentation was made on behalf of the Hebrew Association of the Deaf by Herman Streicher and Sam Becker, president and secretary, respectively, of the organization.
The message that the members of the association “were very happy to make this contribution and more is forthcoming from the members” was interpreted for the bystanders by Dr. Emil M. Zabell, executive director of the New York Society for the Deaf with which the Association is affiliated.
The Social Democratic government in Hesse, West Germany, has donated DM 500,000 to the Israeli Red Cross. The donation was made on the initiative of SPD Premier Albert Osswald and received full Cabinet approval. Osswald said in a telegram to Israel’s Ambassador Eliashiv Ben Horin that the money was to be used to help “all people in distress, regardless of race and religion.”
The Berbers, a North African ethnic group, came out yesterday in favor of Israel. A representative of the Berber Academy of Paris, Ould Slimane, told the JTA: “Egypt cares next to nothing about the Palestinians. The only thing that matters to it is its own territorial expansion.” Slimane added: “We Berbers can only be on the side of Israel and the Kurds.”
A Belgian “Committee of Solidarity with Israel” has been set up in Brussels under the presidency of former Premier Gaston Eyskens. Several former ministers are among the many political figures who have joined the group. In another show of solidarity with Israel, post cards carrying the slogans “Israel, I Love You”, are being sold by the Jewish Community Center of Brussels to collect funds for Israel. Thousands of these cards have already been sent and are addressed to “the people of Israel, the Knesset, and Jerusalem”.
Seventy prominent Argentinians, including writers, artists, academicians and political figures have expressed support for Israel in advertisements published in leading Buenos Aires newspapers. Under the headline, “Solidarity with Israel,” the signatories stated: “In view of the attack against Israel by the armies of Egypt and Syria, perpetrated on the most holy day of the Jewish people, we express our energetic condemnation of this action and wish, together with all people of good will, that the nations of the Middle East, free of external pressures, may reach peace together.”
A teach-in on the Middle East war is being organized at American universities with the aim of reaching at least 25,000 students on more than 100 campuses, the North American Jewish Students’ Network announced today in New York. The date set for the teach in is Oct. 22. According to a spokesman for the group, the response so far has been “fantastic.” The teach in is sponsored by the Network in cooperation with the American Zionist Youth Foundation “in an effort to systematically expand the level of student consciousness about what is at stake in the Middle East in both the short and long run,” the announcement said.
More than 1000 volunteers from all parts of Canada were processed during the weekend in preparation for their departure for Israel to work on kibbutzim. The first group of 200 volunteers are scheduled to leave today and the other 800 as soon as place is available for them on flights going to Israel. Among the volunteers is Jack Lassale, a French-Canadian who spent three years in a kibbutz and is presently an associate editor of the magazine Sur Israel.
Defending the U.S. resupply of war materiel to Israel to offset its losses in the Middle East war Rep. Louis R. Frey (R.Fla.) said in Washington “if Israel does not get planes and this attrition continues there will be no Israel.” Frey, who returned to Washington after eight days in Israel in which he visited the fighting zones in the Golan Heights area, said he was to see President Nixon at the White House today or tomorrow and that “I am going to relay the facts as I saw them.”
He pointed out that “Israel did not start the war.” Challenged by a reporter who suggested that U.S. deliveries of war materiel to Israel would be putting “fuel on the fire” Frey replied with some heat: “When you think of resupply it’s not pouring fuel on a fire but giving people a right to survive….these people have a right to try to survive.”
Several hundred members of the small Jewish community of Lima, Peru crowded the large meeting room of the Peruvian chapter of B’nai B’rith here to express their solidarity with Israel. The message was conveyed by the president of the Association of Jewish Organizations, Lutz Berger and Eric Toff, president of the Zionist Federation. Israel’s Ambassador in Peru, Moshe Avidan, attended the meeting and gave a detailed description of the Middle East situation.
About 200 Jewish university students held a public demonstration of solidarity with Israel Friday, carrying placards in front of the Israeli Embassy in Lima. The demonstration was covered by the press and TV media. The Israeli Ambassador appeared in the evening on a half hour TV program to answer questions from the public immediately after appearance of the Egyptian Ambassador in the same program.
The “solidarity of the American Jewish community in behalf of Israel” was conveyed to Premier Golda Meir by Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, chairman of the American Section of the World Zionist Organization. Declaring that it even “exceeds the sentiment engendered at the time of the Six Day War,” Mrs. Jacobson cabled the Premier that “all elements of the American Zionist movement have rallied together, and we have been joined by practically every other segment of American Jewry.”
She predicted that the United Jewish Appeal and Israel Bonds will “raise unprecedented sums in immediate cash as well as pledges, and we are making our every resource available for this great need.” Mrs. Jacobson told Mrs. Meir that American Jewry is thankful to President Nixon for having taken “first steps to insure Israel of its full defense needs” and pledged the continuance of maintenance of contacts with the President and “working on all aspects of public opinion.”
A Gallup poll survey on the attitude of Americans toward the Middle East war showed that 44 percent supported Israel, six percent supported the Arabs, 22 percent backed neither side and 25 percent expressed no opinion.
THE HUMAN SCENE ON ISRAEL’S WAR AND HOME FRONTS
The story of how a Phantom pilot downed a Kelt ground-to-ground missile that threatened to hit Tel Aviv at the start of the war was told today in the Air Force magazine. The pilot concerned related how he and one other pilot were scrambled on Yom Kippur at 2 P.M. when an unidentified object was spotted on radar making for Tel Aviv. They saw it high above them, trailing fire, and thought it was a MIG on reconnaissance.
Climbing to come closer the Israeli pilot saw it bad no pilot and at once realized the nature of the object. Getting behind it he let go with his weapons and hit it the first time. Bits began flying off the Kelt but–fortunately for the pilot–it did not explode in the air but spun down into the sea where it exploded with enormous force creating a massive wave. The Kelt warhead is estimated at three-quarters of a ton. The pilot said he was in process of adding a new floor to his house and didn’t want the Kelt to mess that up. Since then the pilot bas also dispatched two MIGs–along with their pilots.
The Israeli position on top of Mt. Hermon, described as one of Israel’s fortified positions on the Golan Heights, was overrun by Syrian commandos on the first day of war and was captured. This was revealed today after efforts to investigate the fate of the missing Israeli soldiers from that position failed. Israeli authorities have asked the Red Cross to investigate the matter but Syria has made no reply. The soldiers were officially declared missing.
Druze villagers living on the slopes of Mt. Hermon said that several Syrian helicopters appeared “from nowhere” at 2 P.M. on Oct. 6 (Yom Kippur) and assaulted the position. One of the helicopters was set afire by the Israeli defenders. However, the Syrian commandos succeeded in overpowering the position. It is now surrounded by Israelis who are shelling the area where Syrian forces are still deployed.
The West Bank remains quiet but tense. The cease-fire line is reported quiet with little traffic. Israeli settlements are on alert but work in fields goes on. Very few West Bank workers cross the Green Line to work in Israel, and some building firms are unable to function. In Gaza, after early uncertainty, work in the port continues as normal and large cement consignments are being unloaded for Israel.
The government announced that in view of numerous applications by Israeli Arabs (who are exempt from army service) for volunteering work, seven offices will be opened around the country for registering volunteers and for contributions to the war loan by Israeli Arabs. At its own initiative the municipality of Nazareth has set up a war loan committee to raise contributions. Similarly the chairman of the Sakhnin local council reported to police that his whole village was mobilized and ready to work wherever called. Um el-Fahm village cabled the President and Premier that “we are prepared for any sacrifice we shall be asked to make.”
The Foreign Ministry spokesman said today that the Red Cross had not yet received lists of Israeli prisoners from Syria or Egypt. “We have repeatedly demanded this-but thus far without any response from the Egyptian and Syrian side,” the spokesman said. Israel for its part “has made available and continues to present to the Red Cross lists of Egyptian and Syrian prisoners of war captured by our forces,” he added.
Israel has also given lists of Israeli military personnel missing and presumed prisoners of war. The Red Cross has been requested to ascertain whether they are in fact prisoners of war in Egypt and Syria. The spokesman also noted that on Sunday a Red Cross representative visited wounded war prisoners in Israeli hospital
Free midday concerts with world-famous virtuosi appearing seem to be becoming part of Israel’s wartime scenery. Sunday Isaac Stern and Pinhas Zuckerman enthralled a Jerusalem audience–which paid IL 16,000 to the soldiers welfare fund. Last Friday, when pianist Daniel Barenboim appeared, over IL20,000 was raised. The virtuosi plan to continue the concerts both in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Also on the subject of music, Israel Radio after a week of war has got itself organized–with one channel broadcasting classical music interspersed with hourly newscasts and the other broadcasting light music interspersed with the same. The first channel also broadcasts news and newsreels in English, French, Russian and a gamut of immigrant languages ranging from Moghrabi to Georgian.
A Givatayim caravan (trailer dealer. Yisrael Humash, drove a string of well-equipped trailers to an air force base and offered them for pilots to rest up in between sorties. Each trailer is replete with comforts including air conditioning. Humash is an injured 1948 war veteran. Four men from Herzliya loaded their cars last Saturday with goodies–sweets, cigarettes, cakes, fruit, etc.–and simply drove towards the Suez Canal until they were stopped near the front. There, under shelling, they unloaded, and waited around to see the gifts were properly distributed to the fighters.
Rafi Aunger, a 26 year-old reporter for the Israel Radio, was killed at the Sinai front where he was assigned as a military correspondent. He was killed by the same bomb that killed Gen. Avraham Mendler. Mendler and Aunger were so far the only casualties to be identified by name.
More than 18,000 people had donated blood by yesterday, the Magen David Adom announced. Donors included Arabs and Druze–including residents of the administered areas–as well as tourists. The MDA said both Jewish and Arab prisoners in jail gave blood too, “including men whose names are associated with some of the most widely reported crimes of recent years, some of them serving life sentences.” From abroad have come: 3000 donations from England, and 2000 from the U.S. plus plastic blood containers from France and offers of help from Belgium, Italy, Canada, South Africa and Australia.
The Jerusalem Municipality announced Saturday it had set up a psychological aid service and gave phone numbers where worried or disturbed people could call for help 24 hours a day. Social workers on the staff of the National Insurance Institute suggested to the Defense Ministry that they set up teams of workers to help soldiers or soldiers’ families.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
