Bold Policy on Palestine Outlined by Levinthal at Convention of American Zionists

The establishment of Palestine as ” an independent and unfettered Jewish Commonwealth bound only by those reservations which the post-war world may determine to apply to all nations,” was demanded today by Judge Louis Levinthal, president of the Zionist Organization of America, in his presidential address to the delegates of the 45th annual convention of the ZOA, meeting at the Hotel New Yorker.

Judge Levinthal opposed the idea of making Palestine a bi-national state. He advocated a policy of cooperation with the Arabs ” in the spirit of the understanding laid down in the Feisal-Weizmann agreement and in the Faisal-Frankfurter correspondence.” He demanded that Jews have control over Jewish immigration to Palestine after the war and called for boldness in land acquisition.

Deploring the fact that the British Government rejected the plan for a Jewish Army, Judge Lilienthal demanded a Jewish Fighting Force for Palestine “composed of Jews, of as large a number as wish to serve, free from artificial restrictions, bearing their own insignia and fighting under their own flag in the common interests of Great Britain and the United Nations, wherever the military high command deems their presence necessary.” He emphasized his dissatisfaction with the “belatedly offered” Arab-Jewish regiment. “It is painful for me, a sincere admirer of the British people and of British ideals of law and justice, to be compelled to record our keen disappointment at the humiliating manner in which the British Government has rejected our sincere and persistent demand for the right to organize a distinct Jewish military force,”he declared.

AMERICA’S ROLE IN SHAPING PALESTINE’S FUTURE EMPHASIZED

Reviewing Palestine’s contribution to the war-effort, Judge Levinthal said that its record ” has already been written in sweat and blood, and substantiates new Israel’s rightful claim to live the normal life of a normal people in its ancestral home.” He urged the Zionist Organization of America to give serious consideration to the role which America will play in shaping the future of Palestine and to concentrate its activities on securing the endorsement by all Americans, regardless of creed or race or nationality, of the Jewish aspirations in Palestine. He concluded by criticizing Jewish ” escapists” in America who try to deny their Jewishness and attacked the group of Reform rabbis who disavow Zionism.

Rabbi James G. Heller of Cincinnati, in his address, warned American Zionists that a mighty effect would be necessary to awaken the world to the desperate status of the Jew. He stressed the urgency of amusing the United Nations to the truth regarding the disfranchised Jews in Europe and the part Palestine must play immediately after victory is won.