PROJECT JARBA

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I support your editorial stand on the question of Project Jarba. To be sure, I fail to see what the Jordanian government hopes to accomplish by refusing to let Jews into the country, but since Israel has been known to confuse being a Jew with being a potential Israeli it is not surprising that some of the Arab countries have come to make the same mistake. Perhaps the day will come when Israel will stop campaigning to get all Jews to come and live there, and perhaps some day the Arab countries will stop waging war against Israel, and righteousness, justice and peace will reign in what we used to call the Holy Land. Meanwhile, though, we all have to live with what is an extremely touchy situation and do whatever we can to reduce tension between Israel and the Arabs. In all fairness to King Hussein's government (which, after all, American Zionists don't seem to mind nearly as much as, say, Nasser's) they may have reasoned that the Palestine refugees, who constitute nearly half the population, are so afraid of "International Zionism" that it would be difficult to protect U.S. Jews from their outbursts. I remember telling a Palestinian friend now in Amman that Jordan might persuade some Americans to modify their anti-Arab views by not refusing visas to Jews who want to enter Jordan, especially since the Wailing Wall is in the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem. He became visibly upset and declared in no uncertain terms that he was sure any Jew who came to Jordan would merely use his visit to formulate more propaganda against the Arabs. I admit this sounds pretty ridiculous, but equally so are the frequent attacks by the Religious Zionists of America, not to mention Senators Javits and Keating, against the Organization of Arab Students in the U.S.A. I have read statements in the New York Times by Rabbi Bergman to the effect that all Arab students here are engaged in "anti-Semitic" propaganda and should be sent back to their countries.

...(Abandoning) the project because of bitterness between Arabs and Jews would merely increase... bitterness. Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. 3G.