Israel’s foreign policy will be based on friendship with both the United States and the Soviet Union, Premier David Ben Gurion declared here last night in his first public statement since the elections. Speaking on a radio broadcast as a "citizen and the leader of the largest party in the country," Ben Gurion stated that the Jewish state would seek alliances; with the Arab states in the Middle East and would maintain complete "loyalty to the United Nations,"
Outlining the internal policy which the Mapai will attempt’ to put into effect in the new coalition government, the Premier said that it was important that labor shall form a majority of the government because only thus would it reflect the real state of affairs in the country and because only under a labor majority could the national ideal of Zionism and socialism be developed. Such development, he said, will lead to the transformation of the Jewish people in their homeland to a free cooperative commonwealth of labor "liberated from the curse of man’s exploitation of man."
He demanded that any parties which participate in the coalition do so on the basis of "collective responsibility" within and outside the Cabinet. If a party does not choose to accept Its full share of the responsibility and maintain discipline in relation to the government’s policies, let It stay outside the Cabinet and remain free to express itself as an opposition party, he insisted.
Rounding out the picture in relation to his proposed internal policy, Ben Gurion premised an enlarged program of social legislation and economic planning. The government must gather in the exiles from the Diaspora and their possessions, and at the same time develop the agricultural, industrial and maritime, potentialities of Israel, he pointed out. This program, ha asserted, requires an influx of capital from abroad–from private, state and international sources.
Finally, Ben Gurion pledged that the government will guarantee and extend equal rights to all men and women and all the peoples and religions in Israel, He expressed the opinion that the maturity displayed by the political parties and the during the elections enhanced Israel’s prestige abroad.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
