Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the United States, pledged here that Israel will not be intimidated by a Soviet presence in Syria. “We have no desire for a confrontation with Syria or the Soviets” he told more than 600 people at a gathering commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the death of Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky. “But, if Israel is compelled to do so, Israel will defend itself. During the war of attrition, we shot down Soviet pilots. We are not afraid.”
Netanyahu also told the meeting Tuesday night, sponsored by the Herut Zionists of America and the Max Nordau Circle, at the Roosevelt Hotel, that American Jewry should serve as “troops” in the “propaganda war” being fought in America as a counterforce to the massive Arab media effort to sway U.S. opinion against Israel. Discussing Israel’s losses in various wars, Netanyahu indicated that three percent of Israel’s pilots were lost during the Six-Day War, and only one percent in the Yom Kippur War. “In Lebanon,” he noted, “we cut the figure to zero percent.”
He also pointed out that, while five Arab armies had attacked Israel in 1948, only three did so in 1967, two in 1973, and Syria alone in the Lebanon war. This positive trend has resulted from Israel’s policies, he said.
JABOTINSKY’S ROLE CITED
Rabbi Dov Aharoni-Fisch, the new executive director of the Herut Zionists, said about Jabotinsky that “history has judged him well.” He cited Jabotinsky’s role in creating the Jewish Legion, in advocating an aggressive program of self-defense against Arabs in Palestine in the 1920’s, in formulating the philosophy of the Irgun, and in calling on East European Jewry to evacuate Poland before the Holocaust.
Aharoni-Fisch reported that the Herut Zionists of America have established a national college organization. Tagar Student Activists, to mobilize support for Israel on America’s campuses. He also noted that 157 teenagers affiliated with the organization’s Betar group are currently studying leadership techniques in Israel, while a Young Herut, composed of people aged 25-40, has been formed.
Eryk Spektor, national chairman of the Herut Zionists, said that the Jabotinsky Foundation, a cultural and educational fund dedicated to the dissemination of Jabotinsky’s views and writings, will be sponsoring an award ceremony November 14 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. At that time, he said, the first annual Magen Yerushaalayim — Defender of Jerusalem Prize will be awarded to an individual who has uniquely contributed to Israel and world Jewry over the last three years.
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.
