American Zionists Assail Bevin’s Statement As Insult to Truman and U.S. Jews

Speaking for the entire Zionist movement in the United States, represented in the American Zionist Emergency Conncil, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the Council, today declared that “by his speech in Parliament on Tuesday, Mr. Bevin has capped eighteen months of evasion on the Palestine issue with as mendacious, misleading and insulting a statement as ever issued from the lips of a British Foreign Secretary.”

“A British politician, who has played such dubious politics, especially in connection with Palestine, as has Mr. Bevin, ought not to lecture any government on the subject of political ethics. Citizens of the United States further will not be impressed by his gross innuendo at their Chief Executive; nor by his renewed slights on the Jews of New York. It is not the first time that Mr. Bevin has called to his aid racial prejudice,” Dr. Silver declared.

“Perhaps the most astonishing part of Mr. Bevin’s statement is that in which he declares that last summer he was on the road to an agreement when ‘the whole thing was spoiled’ by the President’s statement of October 4th. The fact is that at that time all negotiations on the Palestine issue had for the time being broken down. Indeed, in the opening paragraph of his statement of October 4th, the President, with deep regret, drew attention to this very fact. Thus, the charge that the President’s renewed request for the immigration into Palestine of 100,000 Jewish displaced persons wrecked an impending settlement is a most mischievous distortion.

“The President’s great act of humanity in once again urging that there be immediate action and in pointing out that the breakdown of discussions meant further delay has been used by Mr. Bevin as the occasion for a gratuitous and insulting attack upon the Chief Executive.

“Mr. Bevin has the insolence to suggest to the United States that Great Britain is the mandatory power and that therefore the United States should keep out of the Palestine picture. It is precisely because Great Britain has assumed obligations, amongst others to the United States, that this country is entitled to draw attention to her failure to carry out those obligations.”