American Zionist Council Calls Two-day Parley in Washington to Protest Arming of Arabs

The American Zionist Council, official spokesman for all American Zionist parties, will convoke a two-day national conference in Washington to protest the rearming of the Arab states by Britain and the U.S. government’s conduct in this matter, Louis Lipsky, chairman of the organization, announced at a press conference here today. The Washington parley will open on June 4.

In making this announcement, Mr. Lipsky declared that the Council “will use all legitimate methods at its disposal to bring about a reversal of the position taken and maintained by the State Department.” To this end the Council will seek the cooperation of all friends of Israel in the United States–Jews and non-Jews alike, he stated.

Mr. Lipsky charged that “for all practical purposes our State Department may be regarded at this time as a partner in a cabal of states” which has its center in Cairo. These states are determined to recover “positions lost in the United Nations” and are interested not in maintaining peace in the Middle East, but in maneuvering for control in the affairs of that area, he declared.

“Our State Department’s role,” said Mr. Lipsky, “in the struggle for power in the Middle East is becoming increasingly obvious: through its defense of the arming of the Arab states; through its failure to take seriously the recent war council of the Arab League, which has ruled out peace negotiations with Israel by any Arab state; through its attitude of indifference to Israel’s request for arms, which has been taken under ‘advisement’; and through its constant reassurance that there is no threat to peace in the Middle East.”

Mr. Lipsky expressed the Council’s view that “the leaders of our foreign policy have been maneuvered into a position of giving Britain the lead in Middle Eastern affairs and of backing to the hilt, without reservation, the anti-Israel policy of the Foreign Secretary of the British Government.” It is in protest against this policy that the American Zionist Council is mobilizing its forces and is calling its national conference in Washington, Mr. Lipsky pointed out.