Premier David Ben Gurion held a conference today with Israeli President Chaim Weizmann and reported on the progress of industrial developments in the nation. The President also discussed events in the political field with Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett.
Government officials, meanwhile, disclosed that under terms of the Israeli-Transjordan armistice, a section of the Gilboa range would be transferred to Israel about the middle of next month. The transfer had been scheduled to occur earlier but was delayed at the request of Transjordan because of the impending Arab harvest.
Daniel Frisch, president of the Zionist Organization of America who is now visiting Israel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today following a one-hour conference with Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan that he felt that critics of the Israeli Government could not "better the attempts" of Mr. Kaplan and Premier Ben Gurion.
The Z.O.A. president said he learned that only 75 percent of all employable persons in the Jewish state now hold down jobs. This situation, he added, affects Israel’s economic position seriously. He emphasized the need for private capital investment in Israel in order to solve the new state’s economic problems resulting from the huge number of recent immigrants and in order to check the inflationary spiral. Mr. Frisch expressed the opinion that if the Israeli Government co-opted all parties into the present coalition, this action would be welcomed by Jews through cat the world.
SHARETT DENIES COMMUNIST CHARGE ISRAEL ABROGATED IMMIGRATION TREATY WITH RUMANIA
Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett last night denied a charge by Meir Wilner, deputy of the Israeli Communist Party, that Israel had abrogated its treaty on immigration with Rumania. Minister Sharett, who replied to Deputy Wilner during the course of a foreign policy debate in the Knesset, also stated that the Foreign Ministry was constantly concerned with the fate of Jews in Arab countries and was making every effort to bring them to Israel and guarantee them equal rights upon their arrival.
Mr. Wilner, who expressed "no confidence" in the coalition government, called for resistance to "American imperialistic intervention" in the matters of territory and refugees, and insisted that the United States was responsible for the breakdown of the Lausanne peace talks. He charged that as a result of the $100,000,000 loan from the U.S., Israel had agreed to American supervision of its economy, and that as a result of American pressure the Israeli Army retreated from a number of positions it had won.
The agreement to provide Transjordan with a free port at Haifa, and the establishment of demilitarized zones in the Negev and Galilee under the supervision of American generals prove that Israel is joining the West, despite protestations of neutrality between the Western and Soviet blocs, the communist leader declared. He also stated his party’s opposition to Israel joining the North Atlantic pact or any projected Mediterranean pact.
The Communist party is opposed to international supervision of the Holy Places, and demands the annexation of Jerusalem by Israel, but with the proviso that the Jewish state guarantee access to the Holy Places to all, he said, Mr. Wilner also voiced opposition to the annexation of any Palestine territory by any Arab state.
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.
