Hide Article Text (OCR)
Frank Reports From IsraelWhy Envoy James G. MacDonald Can't Keep Kosher in Tel AvivBy M. Z. FRANKTEL AVIV, Feb. 25—1 owe an apology to my editor, my reader and my friends for my long silence without notice. I left for Israel on short notice with heavy commitments as to work, and I had pretty bad luck with weather both in Paris, where I had to wait for a plane for a full week and in Israel where I struck the worst rain in many years during the rainy season of the year.I came here mainly to cover the pre election excitement but I was almost too late for that, having come three days before the elections. Anyway history is moving at such an accelerated pace in this country now that the elections themselves are past history—and yet it isonly one month ago today that I stood in thepolling booth at Rehovoth watching the first citizen of Israel drop his ballot Into the box.I found more things to see and to write about I could easily make an article out of every half hour I spend here. Let me just mention a few highlights as a mere introduction.Sees Areas of Heaviest BattleI traveled with Leon Crestohl cf Montreal to the Negev and saw Beersheba, and the famous Iraq-Seidan police station which was the scene of the most decisive battles of the Negev; and theghost village of Beth-Eshel, where for seven months a handfulof Jewish pioneers stood the brunt of the attacks from the 8,000 Arabs at Beersheba until they had to be removed from the place for sheer exhaustion after the Negev was won by the Jews; and Negba whose stand was as heroic as Beth-Eshel’s but whose settlers were lucky enough to stay and tell us their story—and what a story!I stood on a hill and watched on the one hand the town of Faluja where the Egyptians were still trapped, and on the other, Beth A fa, where the only son of my close friend, Haim Halperin, was severely wounded and has been missing ever since.1 passed through the Doroth settlement where the young daughter of another close friend of mine, Bernard Joseph, fell from an Egyptian bomb. In the police station at Iraq-Seidan, we saw the blood-spattered walls, the large holes made by shells and mortar fire and the other grim reminders of fierce fighting.But we had a peaceful meal in thq lower story, army style, served by Israeli soldiers, in what was originally a stall for the horses of the British police. In Beersheba, Leon made me stand near Bedouins who came to trasact business with the Jewish military authorities and took pictures upon pictures.Historical Scenes Visited on TripWe went to the top of the mosque and Leon took more pictures, and we saw the sandy country where father Abraham once pitched his tents, now completely in Jewish hands. When we were there, they were making preparations to receive immigrants coming in from Cyprus, but in the meantime there were only Jewish soldiers and a branch of the famous Tel-Aviv coffee house Cassisth, which, as I once explained, is the local counterpart of the New York Cafe Royal.I saw American boys and girls put up a new settlement in the western Galilee, In a country of breath-taking beauty, with millions of birds flying over the green trees, and the boundaries of Syria and I^ebanon visible in the distance. Emanuel Felgin of Chicago, son of one of my boyhood friends, and .Alvin Rosenfeld of the New Yrk Post, helped the settlers put up their temporary quarters, and they seemed to enjoy It. At Raanana I saw the boys and girls from the Poughkeepsie farm linking up with the native-born chalutzim to form a new settlement. „I saw the last session of the Provisional State Council and the
Newspaper Details
Indianapolis Indiana Jewish Post
Indianapolis, Indiana, US
Fri, Mar 11, 1949
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Library O.
DC, USA 02 May 2024
Other Publications Near Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis Daily Sentinel
Indianapolis Republican Convention
Indianapolis Daily State Sentinel
Indianapolis Indiana Democrat
Indianapolis Press
