Roving Report: Isreal Behind The Trial (2)

Report examines some of the problems of modern Israel's development while reflecting on the vulnerability of the Jewish state and its people which the trial of Eichmann vividly recalls. Former Prime Minister Moshe Sharett explains how the hostility of his country's Arab neighbours has acted as an incentive to development although it has also compelled Israel to spend much money on her defence forces. Students speak proudly of Israel's achievement in developing rapidly and assimilating large numbers of Jews from different countries although they do not expect Israel's external relations with the Arabs to improve in the near future. Jews' awareness of their past is apparent in interviews with people in Jerusalem who mostly believe that Eichmann should be punished for crimes committed in the Second World War. Sharett's explanation for this race memory and the associated anti-semitism is that the Jews have a spiritual superiority complex based on their invention of a single god and that they remained spiritually cohesive where other races dissolved. Date: 17/05/1961