Sulsberger Opposes Jewish Army Project; Outlines Plan for Post-war Palestine

Jews and non-Jews in America wore urged here last night by Arthur Hays Sulsberger, president and publisher of the New York Times, to discontinue their efforts for the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine. He also suggested that the Jewish problem in Palestine should be solved after the war not by the creation of a separate Jewish State there but by amalgamating several Arab countries into one great State “so that the Arabs would welcome its might and never have cause to fear that the Jews who move there would upset the numerical balance of power.”

Back from a visit to Britain, Mr. Sulzberger made these suggestions in the course of an address delivered here before the Brotherhood of the Madison Avenue Temple, He declared that the Zionist efforts were helping “to create problems in the Moslem world which merely add to the difficulties of the United Nations” and warned Zionist extremists that their insistence upon the formation of a Jewish national army would, if continued, result not only in embarrassment to the United Nations, but could also be “distorted by the Axis in the Arab world.”

“Presumably the British government has decided,” Mr. Sulzberger said, “that, all other things considered, it will not help win the war to meet the demand for a separate Jewish army. Furthermore, the United States government has evidently not felt it either wise or expedient to intervene with the British government in this matter. It seems to me, therefore, that since those decisions have been made and I think made with a conviction that will not be changed.-at least during this war – it serves no useful purpose to continue, at this time, a campaign which not only embarrasses the United Nations, but can be distorted by the Axis in the Arab world. I wish I had the ability to set that problem straight and teach my fellow-Americans who are not Jews that it would be wise to examine all the facts in that complicated situation before lending their names to the extreme Zionist cause, or the demand for a Jewish army.”

JEWS WANT THE RIGHT TO CALL ANY PLACE THEIR HOMO, HE SAYS

Pointing out that the Zionist aims do not represent the desires of all Jews, Mr. Sulzberger declared: “If I, as a Jew, can help to impress the world that what Jews want far more than a home of their own is the right to call any place their home, that in finding now homes justice must be done those who already dwell where the newcomer would live – then I believe I shall have been faithful to the tradition of justice which is my heritage as an American of Jewish faith.

“I would not have you think that I am unaware of the need for refuge for many peoples, including Jews, after this war is over,” he continued. “I know, too, that many Jews will seek the Holy Land. But let us keep it a Holy Land. Let us make sure that we do not transform it merely into another nation, jealous of its own national rights, heedless of those who for the past two thousand years have lived within its borders.

“It would seem to me that this could be done if, when the time comes, there is created a great State out of several of the countries in that section of the world. I would make it sufficiently largo so that the Arabs would welcome its might and never have cause to fear that the Jews who move there would upset the numerical balance of power. And into this enlarged State I would welcome all who wish to come, and the Arabs would join in such a welcome secure in the knowledge that they would not be outnumbered. Such a plan would provide the refuge we all seek to establish. It would, however, deny Jewish statehood; but, in a world already plagued by too many nations, is that not right?

“Out of my own observations in Palestine, and, more importantly, out of the reports I have had from these who lived many years in the country, I am convinced that the Jew and Arab can live side by side in peace and work out a common destiny in a commonwealth. If there is antagonism now it is largely the crop sowed by the extremists and the professional agitators on the two sides,” Mr. Sulzberger stated.