Premier David Ben Gurion warned today that unless an agreement is reached with the Arab states within a specified time, Israel would go ahead on its own with the Jordan River hydroelectric development project. The responsibility for what came afterwards would rest with “our enemy,” he said.
Replying to various statements at the eighth national convention of the Histadrut, the Premier told delegates from border settlements that their requests for anti-tank weapons would be considered, but he stressed that Israel’s military thinking involved taking the war into Arab territory if Israel was compelled to fight.
Mr. Ben Gurion expressed pique at the Indian Government in the course of a reply to a demand that Israel adopt a neutralist attitude similar to India’s. First, he pointed out that Israel and India’s security positions were hardly similar because India had no reason to fear attacks across its borders. Then he said that he esteemed Pandit Nehru as a statesman and a pupil of Gandhi’s, but that Nehru was no true pupil of Gandhi’s if he refused to recognize Israel and joined with her enemies.
Earlier, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Achdut Avodah leader, demanded immediate resumption of work on the Jordan River hydroelectric project, insisting that peace would not be achieved by abandoning work on the project in the face of Arab objections. Both Mr. Tabenkin and Meir Yaari, Mapam leader, endorsed an earlier call by Premier Ben Gurion for unification of Israel’s labor parties into a single structure. Both leftist leaders suggested that gradual cooperation along the same lines as the labor coalition was following in the government would bring about unity in the labor movement.
Mr. Yaari, however, also called for the Israel Government to adopt a pro-Soviet orientation in view of the “collapse” of its pro-American policy. He insisted that the pro-American policy had resulted in the isolation of Israel. The Mapam leader urged elimination of military control in the Arab-Populated border areas, but opposed concessions to the Arab states in peace negotiations.
The Communist delegates at the convention threw the conference into an uproar when they proposed that the Histadrut send “greetings to Jordan on its release from (Maj-Gen. John B.) Glubb.” This, the Communists asserted, was evidence that Jordan was achieving absolute independence. This proposal was rejected, as was a Communist motion for the Big Four to call a Middle East roundtable peace conference at which Israel and the Arab states would be present.
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.
