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197   Challenge To Pompidou
      February 26, 1970

     Some of the press stories about M. Pompidou's visit have predicted
that he would get a "hot reception" and that he has anticipated
this with trepidation.  I welcome Georges Pompidou's visit; I am glad
he is here.  For I might hope that in this way he might learn some-
thing that is vital to the future of the world and the culture that
we share.  I want him to know that we are here, and what we care
about; but we should give him no excuse to take the luxury of not
listening.

     I do not stand here to defend, or even (as might be an even more
typically Jewish habit) to criticize the policies of the government of
Israel, a nation facing impossible dilemmas in its struggle for survival
and for the right to live in peace in the community of nations.
On all sides, there are victims--Jews, Arabs, bystanders--who suffer
in innocent helplessness.       

     The roots of the problem go very deep, above all in ourselves, and
in our own failure to solve the larger conflicts of the great powers.
We have stubborn and malevolent adversaries, but we fall far short of
perfect love and wisdom ourselves.

                 Judge Yourself

     I cannot judge you, M. Pompidou--but I call on your conscience,
and your ambitions for the honor of your own name and that of your
country, to judge yourself.  It is to you I must speak.

     For some time, the official policy of your government was to
minimize the flow of arms to either side of the middle-East conflict.
This seemed a peculiar blindness to what the Soviets were already
stirring up, but the principle was not hypocritical and suffered more
from lack of realism than of logic.  Now, we hear that Libya is to 
receive 50, 100, or more advanced jet fighters for which she has no 
conceivable use; but, of course, you have been reassured that they will
not be diverted to Egypt to refuel Arab aggression against Israel.

                 Protestations of Friendship

     I cannot believe that you are basically hostile to the people of
Israel or to the Jews of the world.  The out come of the 1967 war may
justify a certain faith in miracles; your belief in some miracle
might reconcile your recent policy with your protestation of friend-
ship.

     More likely you have worked out some contorted logic by which to
rationalize that policy, and to find in the vortices of power an
attractive vacuum that draws you to reassert the vanities of French
glory.  But we cannot evade the consequences of error, and recent his-
tory shows all too many examples of grave error in the manipulations
of Weltpolitik.

                Pompidou and Hitler

     The Arab bloc is avowedly dedicated to a holy war that would
drive Israel into the sea.  If they succeed with your help, you, and
France  will pay a price too--you will have to live with the knowledge
that Georges Pompidou had finished the work that Adolf Hitler had
started.  

     Do you think that French culture, or any civilized culture, will
long survive in a world in which that can have happened!

     Of course you do not contemplate such an event.  But how much you
risk with your adventures!  Are the consequences of your calculations
so trustworthy when so much is at stake?

     Politics is, of course, a world of mutual reactions; and it is
inescapable that your gambits must be followed by responses from this
country and elsewhere to maintain some balance of force.  The lovers
of violence may delight at such inflammations.  But what a terrible
waste of energy and resources.  Glory is a hollow-sounding word in an
era of famine and global anarchy.
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