Israel's Mission is to Save Jews
By M. J. Rosenberg
March 23, 1984

     The report that the Israeli government quitely used its
contacts in Argentina to secure the release of Jews im-
prisoned there by the right-wing junta is worth noting.
During the junta's seven years in power, there was a
great deal of criticism of Israel for its dealing with the
regime. It was argued that Israel should not have any ties
with a government that was victimizing Jews and which
used anti-Semitism as a policy tool.
     Israeli officials responded to the charge with the assur-
ance that it was using its contacts in Buenos Aires to help
Argentinean Jews but that its rescue work had to be done
without publicity. The fall of the junta and its replacement
by a democratic regime allows the true story of Israel's
rescue efforts to be told.
     According to the Jerusalem Post, the Argentinean gov-
ernment would periodically publish lists of those impris-
oned for various political "crimes". Under an agreement
with Israel, Jews on the list could leave Argentina for
Israel - but for no other place. Israel also saved Jews 
whose names did not appear on the lists but who were
being shadowed by security forces. Israel spirited these
people to Tel Aviv - and away from the fate of as many as
20,000 political detainees or desaparacidos - torture and
death.
     The Post notes that not all Argentineans saved by
Israel were Zionists or even supporters of Israel. Some
were leftists who shared the left's antipathy for the 
Jewish State. But their politics were of no interest to the
Israelis; they were Jews and had to be saved.
     The newspaper reports that, in one case, a young Jew
rescued by Israel insisted in getting off his Tel Aviv-
bound plane while it was on a European stopover.
"Shortly afterwards, he approached an Israel Embassy
in Europe, seeking Israel's help to rescue his gentile wife
who had remained in Buenos Aires and had subsequently
been kidnapped." She, too, was rescued by the Israelis.
     It is an important story because it demonstrates that
Israel continues to fulfill its chief mission: protection of its
own people and imperiled Jews everywhere. Today few
Soviet Jews are permitted to leave the Soviet Union. In
recent years, only 10 percent of those who mamaged to
get out chose Israel as their home. Most preferred the
United States and the West to harsher life in Israel.
     Nevertheless, it is the existence of Israel which makes
any Soviet emigration possible. Every departing Soviet
Jew has to sign a pledge that he or she will be going to
Israel. It is that pledge which is the ticket to freedom-
for those who actually go to Israel and for those who
never get any closer to Israel than Brooklyn. Without
the Jewish State neither Argentinean nor Soviet Jews
would have any sovereign entity looking out for their
interests. With Israel, there is hope - and a passport
and those papers which can mean life or death.
     This all puts the life to those claims - made by Jews
who consider themselves enlightened - that Israel means
nothing to them, that it is just another foreign country
without special significance. The fact is that Jews may be
indifferent to Israel, but Israel is not indifferent to them.
Whether on the streets of Tel Aviv - or in Paris, Buenos
Aires or New York - Jews and their well-being are the
special concern of Israel and its reason for being. The
left-wing Argentinean Jew who proclaimed world
revolution and death to the imperialists had to turn to
Israel when his life was threatened. Soviet Jews who
consider themselves 100 percent Russia becomes too
much too bear. The same is true of Jews in other 
endangered communities. For all of them, Israel represents
the only out.
     It must also be noted that Israel has only been able to
perform its mission of rescue since 1948. Before that, Israel
was under foreign domination. For 400 years the Turks, then
for 31 British, decided when and for whom the gates of Israel
would be opened. The British, of course, slammed the gates
shut in 1939 - at the momement of greatest need. That is why 
Israel, when independence was finally declated, immediately
adopted the "law of Return." Under its provisions every Jew
has the right to "return" to the homeland. For millions of Jews
who don't give Israel a thought, it is that law which provides 
the ultimate security.