The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 6

READERS' VIEWPOINT JAMES I KNIGHT Chairman JOHN KNIGHT Editoriol Chairmori Aid To Israel Serves The US Interest lEEHIUSPublishr AlVAH CHAPMAN Jr President DON SHOEMAKER Editor JURGENSMEYER Gen Mgr GEORGE BEEBE Senior Managing Editor IARRY JINKS Managing Editor JOHN PENNEKAMP Associate Editor 6-A Friday July 14 1972 EDITORIALS '7 VS Jews largely support Israel so do the majority of US Christians Are they too politically enslaved by the so-called Jewish vote?" son in selling out US intrests for) alien gain If the US government and this is a big "if" has been hard on the Arab nations and helpful to Israel it has only been to serve the US interest No nation operates in another's interest or against its own interest and remains alive If candidates for office promise to continue US aid to Israel it must be that they also see it in the same US interest If US Jews largely support Is- As The Democratic Nominee A Lion-Like Sen McGovern rael so do the majority of US Christians Are they too politically enslaved by the so-called Jewish vote? And if candidates recognize the Nicholas von Hoffman in his July 6 Viewpoint column attacked the US electorate US candidates for political office the administration in Washington and the State of Israel and then apparently worried at what he had done inferred hopefully that we of the Anti-Defamation League would not only protect him from the charge of anti-Semitism but would not ourselves accuse him of it Mr Von Hoffman may not be an anti-Semite but he is pro-Arab and anti-Israel To suggest that officeholders and candidates Republican and Democrat alike are nothing but disloyal opportunists bending at the knee before an alleged Jewish voting bloc is insulting and simplistic He imitates the tactic popularized by Sen Joe McCarthy in charging our President and other government people with whom he disagrees of trea- What Would Poor popular wish to support the democracy of Israel against the non-democracies in the Mideast and promise to support her if elected what's wrong with that? Mr Von Hoffman asserts that US aid to Israel has opened up the Arab world to the Russians Even scarcely informed people understand that even if Israel did not exist the Soviet Union would be finding its way into the Middle East as part of its own long-term global strategy Is Israel responsible for the Soviet warships spreading across the entire Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean? The Chinese also are now seeking to intrude in the area Will Mr Von Hoffman blame that on Israel too? His lack of objectivity in arguing that Israel has no right to stop terrorists at its borders from crossing over to kill its women ajid children is matched only by his revealing use of the word "blitzkriegers" to describe the Israeli defenders If Mr Von Hoffman fears being labeled anti-Semitic by some of his readers he should avoid likening the Israeli military to the Nazi wehrmacht That his comparison is not accidental is revealed when he actually dubs Israel "the Prussia of the Middle East" and by his use of the word "lebensraum" to describe the Israeli government's alleged geopolitical outlook In this connection must we remind him that Israel is larger today than in 1948 only because she was attacked three times by the Arabs who then refused to sit at a peace table with her to settle boundaries? Mr Von Hoffman should be understood for what he is a political partisan cloaked as a newspaper reporter and a first-rate Arab propagandist BURTON YOUNG Chairman Executive Committee Anti-Defamation League Richard Say? -V: He didn't say how this could be done in an age of inflation Indeed the speech was as devoid of specifics as is much of the McGovern program Domestically the candidate criticized "three years of tolerated stagnation" of the economy and "a rising level of unemployment" If he becomes President he said "whatever employment the private sector does not provide the federal government will either stimulate or provide itself Whatever it takes the country is going back to work" The words somewhat paraphase John Kennedy in 1960 SO we have a fighting speech in an impassioned atmosphere Conventions nearly always confer a super-mandate and end on a strident note which induces euphoria On nomination night no good guy can fail to lick a bad guy Just as we would suggest to Richard Nixon that he take the challenge of a recharged Democracy seriously so would we suggest to George McGovern that the shouting does not mean it is all over Big Labor the habitual Democratic moneybags by and large is sulking in its tent George Wallace's incapacitation may foreclose a third party effort but he has at least enough strength to sit it out There is no charted economic program on the McGovern board only some theorizing in terms perhaps broad enough to be reversible but pungent enough to raise the hackles of both big and middle business There is the prospect moreover that President Nixon can turn the war off before election day Most economic indicators and all economists detect a rising economy in the third quarter of the year The coffers of the Republican Party are brimming These are some of the obstacles November is not a long way off We sense from all the elements of the production at Miami Beach and an entrenched Republican Party a sharp and bitter campaign George McGovern has seemed at times wholly expressionless He looked like a lion last night "AMERICAN politics will never be the same again" said George McGovern last night as he became the 19th nominee of this century of the Democratic Party The acceptance speech had a certain electric charge which seemed to neutralize the week's quarrels in Miami Beach And looking about the uproarious Convention Hall one might agree that politics at least here indeed would never be the same again This said Sen McGovern of his nomination is "the gift of the most open political process in our national history" The process began early in 1969 after the Chicago calamity when the McGovern-Fraser commission on delegate selection and the O'Hara commission on convention changes prescribed sweeping new rules One must admit they have had startling results For whatever it is worth the new party coalesces in principle youth 25 million of whom will be voting for the first time retirees a substantial flock of war doves some of the rank-and-file but few of the bosses of organized labor black and other minorities the anti-machine urban politicians and the left-of-center segment of the Democratic spectrum There was no issue more popular at the convention this week than the Vietnam war lambasted as though no Democrat had ever had a hand in that thing "I have no secret plan for peace" said the party's nominee with an elbow in the side of Richard Nixon "I have a plan" It would consist of halting the "senseless bombing of Indochina on inauguration day" Evidently Sen McGovern who has promised also to wipe the whole thing out in 90 days is convinced that President Nixon cannot wish or order the war away by November To counter those critics who have made rather convincing analyses of how his drastic cuts in defense spending would overturn the balance of power Sen McGovern reminded that "it is necessary in an age of nuclear power and hostile ideologies that we be militarily strong" Nominating System Fails Try Hijackers Immediately I believe there is an obvious solution of the hijacking problem In each case of hijacking there is kidnaping involved and the threat of murder either voiced or implied There is also a large number of witnesses to the crime AH that is needed is an international agreement which will guarantee the perpetrator a speedy trial and justice The trial should be held immediately while the witnesses are available and in front of the highest justice immediately available The verdict under these conditions would have to be guilty The sentence should be death and should be exacted within 24 hours There would be a huge saving of public monies with no chance of error in the identification of the criminal This action once put into effect would stop most hijackings while they were still a fleeting thought in the hijacker's mind GEORGE GALE Gainesville be for him if they had another candidate who was more "decent" and who could win The truth still is that the nominating processes in America are a failure Instead of wasting millions and millions of dollars to get a duet of nominees who are unrepresentative why not chuck the conventions in favor of an open national election to nominate intelligent responsible men? Such a system would envision a list of candidates for each party a run-off if necessary Surely such a system would be more democratic The worst it could do would be only to affirm the poor undemocratic choices that the majority of Americans have not chosen DANIEL KEINER In November a confused electorate will be faced with polarization: Nixon on the right and McGovern on the left While one or the other may succeed in winning a majority of the votes that will not at all prove that the majority of people in the country are for that particular candidate The fact of the matter is that McGovern has won only a little more than 30 per cent of the Democratic votes in the processes of open primaries and other methods of selection before the actual convention Yet he is now going to be presented as the "Democratic choice" for Presidential candidate And while Mr Nixon has the Republican Convention locked up this does not at all prove that even the majority of Republicans would A Man Who Fits The Ticket Convention Is A Spectacle The rebirth of a nation should be the central theme of our 200th appropriate goal after 40 years of the red tape and red ink of bureaucracy Bureaucracy is the expensive substitute for the lack of self-restraint by business labor and the politicians too There may be political gold in the bills of bureaucracy but there is nothing more democratic than a lower price the natural by-product of the increased productivity of a free economy Poor Richard would have a few choice words to say about a nation pricing itself into a bureaucratic state and calling it prosperity MILLER Philadelphia Pa Fischer Gives Us A Bad Image Chris Evert won the hearts of tennis lovers around the world in her matches in England at Wimbledon Her great playing and her mature conduct for a 17-year-old young lady under great pressure was in marked contrast to Bobby Fischer US contestant in the world chess match with Boris Spassky of Russia Because of Fischer's arrogance demand for more money and late arrival in Iceland for the match he was dubbed by the people of that country "The Ugly American" I would have to agree We need more types like Chris Evert as ambassadors of goodwill for the United States MILDRED BUTLER Bare-Feet Party CanH Even Vote I wonder how many of the non-delegate protesters encamped on Miami Beach are registered voters Are those children so naive they don't realize the only protesting voice a politician is capable of hearing is one backed by the weight of a vote? I fear the "bare chests and bare feet" party blew its chances of having any say in the nation's government when most of them couldn't be bothered registering as voters After it's all over and they are safe at home the young protestors will wake up to realize the only thing they won at Miami Beach was a chance to sleep overnight in Flamingo Park Big deal GAIL COMPTON Growth Like This Is Not Progress When the last shovelful of asphalt has been planted on the last blade of grass in Hialeah the politicians who have sold out for the other green stuff will surely not want to live in the congestion they have created We have watched trees that were landmarks mowed down fields that were beautiful become bulldozed wastelands The streets become wider and still not wide enough for the bumper-to-bumper traffic The real meaning of progress is a movement toward a steady improvement and 3000 more apartments with the attendant problems they create is not progress VIRGINIA SMITH Too Much Is Said About Drug Users Have seen and read so much about the 75 to 80 per cent of high school students who supposedly use drugs What about the ones who do not? Let's hear more of them FRED OAKLEY Bobbfs Ruined The Chess Match Bobby Fischer's conduct has made good sportsmanship so mercenary and distasteful there is no desire left to follow the match JEAN ROBB1NS TV a group of women who said they represented the poor undernourished and illfed Each one weighed about two pounds less than a horse I suggest the poor send representatives the next time who look undernourished rather than those who don't walk but waddle to the door MICHAEL SHAARA Melbourne A Remedy For Hijackings Regarding hijackings a remedy: 1 Guard or padlock all empty planes between trips A gun can easily be smuggled into a lavatory to be picked up later 2 Screen all passengers when boarding to the skin search and fluo-roscope all large packages and hand My father was an immigrant and I have seven brothers and sisters born here He worked hard with his hands to bring us up No welfare for us we all went out and worked selling papers shining shoes driving grocery wagons etc We all got a good education but we worked for it We never begged We had pride I am aware that many people need welfare the crippled blind helpless and the orphaned and I'd be the first in line to grant it to them But when I see some so-called protestor who is so busy protesting he has no time to work making the statement he either gets 750 seats on the convention floor or he's going to start a lot of trouble and some convention officials smile at him I get mad They should get some convention officials with some guts Then I saw another spectacle on Poor Sure Do nam war funds and the Lockheed loan fund They differed over the volunteer army extending the draft one year and the Rehnquist nomination In 1969 the conservative coalition liked Eagleton better than McGovern if it liked either at all Last year it was just the reverse Unlike his leader Sen Eagleton is cozy with organized labor What Sen McGovern clearly was seeking was a running-mate who would accept his platform and most of his philosophy But Sen Eagleton's track record never ran beside Populism He has been simply a "liberal" Midwestern senator Once the Vice Presidency was considered a sort of fifth wheel Today it is a vital effective office one heartbeat from the White House According to his likes George McGovern has chosen well The campaign will decide whether the young gentleman from Missouri can show them or whether indeed he is a Thomas Who "THOMAS WHO?" That question patented pending for Spiro Agnew in Miami Beach four years ago when the Vice President was hardly a household word (and already to some a naughty one) hovers again over Sen Thomas Eagleton of Missouri whom Presidential Nominee George McGovern has chosen as his running-mate Sen Eagleton is nearly eight years the junior of George McGovern He i freshman senator a government officeholder of 16 years' duration a onetime corporation lawyer and a member of a wealthy conservative family That seems hardly a Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee act But there most of the dissimilarities end On voting records the two usually have been birds of a feather Sen Eagleton voted with the leader of the Democratic ticket on open housing ditching the Safeguard missile the oil depletion allowance rejection of Judges Haynes-worth and Carswell limiting the supersonic transport a cut-off date for Viet Get Around 3 Have two to four security guards riding on each plane two in uniform with guns two in plainclothes 4 Pay for this by a slight increase in air fares JONATHAN SMYTHE If the poor are so poor how did they get to the convention from all parts of the country? I live here and can't even afford to get there ARTHUR HUBBERT BEHIND THE FRONT PAGE An Idea That Deserves A Home What Didn't Happen Is Great By JOHN PENNEKAMP WHAT amounts to a slogan or motto is plaguing the state's efforts to establish its ninth half-way house here It is: "We approve what you are doing but don't want it near us" Half-way houses are training centers to which teens whose ages range from 14 through 17 are sent when they have twice broken the law but indi Pennekamp scheduled for West Miami where a plea for acceptance will be made before the city council on Wednesday That's when the program's supervisors expect to have opposition from residents under the "very good but not here" motto Half-way houses says Alvin Itz-koff acting complex administrator for the proposed West Miami place are occupied by 20 to 25 teenagers The one in West Miami would be for boys Supervision is on a 24-hour basis They have proven in every instance to be good neighbors he adds and the average of success in diverting the youngsters from the beckoning crime path is nearly 90 per cent that is boys who have not again come before a court and who have not been sent to reform places IN THE Dade County experiment Herman Lucerne widely known South Dade grower and shipper agreed to employ 10 boys in his fields The boys lived at home They assembled at a central meeting place each morning and were transported to that day's place for work Sometimes the entire group was on one project under an agricultural supervisor When broken into units they were under the supervision of one of their number picked for the ability he has shown The work involved fertilizing spraying pruning making new trees through layering planting or any other grove activity In the half-way house program a greater variety of employment opportunities will be sought NOMINAL but unobtrusive halfway house guidance is given by Itz-koff who found that the usual juvenile tendency to form cliques shows up but is readily dissipated Much of value comes from the evening meetings where it has been learned that the shape-up program progresses because the youngsters know each other better than do adults "They might succeed in evasions with grownups" said one of the administrators during the Lucerne experiment "but they can't get away with kidding each other they know how the other fellow thinks" THE HOUSE here will be known as the Dade Field TRY Center the capitals standing for training rehabilitation and youth The program has federal financial support and was begun about four years ago Expansion is contemplated so that the attendants at a half-way house will not be limited to their immediate neighborhoods city or county conversation They came off second best to the McGovern forthrightness No one was arrested No one was hurt End of protest In these times which often seem so intolerant this was the classic American response It ought to not to be forgotten in the days ahead if the nation's first principles are to be preserved along with public order The story of Miami Beach July 1972 will be told best in retrospect Among the many individuals who should be cited for exceptional performance of duty are Police Chief Rocky Pomer-ance who prepared his men to deal with an unusual situation Mayor Chuck Hall who realized that the best way to meet the situation is to control it County Manager Ray Goode who provided both the theory and bore the ultimate designated authority and Gov Reubin Askew who stood observantly in the wings and assigned the responsibilities We could go on to other groups and individuals civic and governmental but there will be a place for that when the events of a week many dreaded are as we said a part of history Surely it has luster THE 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach apparently is going into history without any major incident of violence after three weeks of apprehension That nothing much happened and that "tens of thousands" of unruly demonstrators did not descend upon the community is owed to intelligent planning of security the thoughtful handling of protestors exercising their constitutional right to assemble and the restraint and discipline of the protestors themselves Confrontation is a way of communicating if it is done peacefully One mini-incident in which a relatively small group of youths invaded a hotel lobby threateningly and attempted to hold it illegally did not really mar the convention Rather it was a lesson in the best use of dialogue For this outcome all credit is due to Sen George McGovern a few hours before his nomination as the rc candidate for President Against some advice to the contrary Sen McGovern left his rooms went to the lobby and engaged its invaders in cate that they can be reformed There for up to five months they live together studying associating in recreation and are sent out to paying jobs or to schools for indicated training When they are together in the evenings they perform what is known as a therapy service each attempts to pressure his fellows to shape up It has been a successful effort in a somewhat similar experiment here and in half-way houses which have been set up in West Palm Beach Tallahassee Tampa Opa-locka Jacksonville and Daytona Beach and in one for girls at Orlando THE DADE house which would operate in the Dade-Broward area is Sign Your Name Letters to the Editor must bear the writer's name and address The use of ini-litih or nen-names as sisna- ''ires will eliminate a letter irom consideration for pub' livation All letters are sub-jrcl to condensation by the editors.