Top leaders of the world Zionist movement issued tonight a grim warning against the perils of a United Nations imposed solution which would restore conditions as they existed before the present Middle East crisis. They characterized such a solution as a UN “Munich” which, they said, would leave the way open for the seizure of the Middle East by Soviet military power. The warning was coupled with an appeal to the United States to press for direct peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt.
The Zionist leaders spoke at an emergency meeting held at Hunter College Auditorium under the auspices of the Zionist Organization of America. Speakers were Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the Jewish Agency; Avraham Harman, member of the Jewish Agency executive; Rabbi Irving Miller, chairman of the American Zionist Council, and Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Zionist Organization of American. Another speaker was James G. McDonald, first U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
Dr. Goldmann, in his address, said that while Israel’s security situation has improved appreciably as a result of the destruction of a large portion of Egypt’s fighting power, “the political situation which has led to the military action of the past few weeks remains unresolved, plagued by uncertainty and pregnant with peril.”
The world Zionist president further maintained that “the disunity of the Western world and the unity of the pro-Arab bloc create an untenable situation for Israel.” He pointed out that “the danger is as great today, as it had been before Operation Sinai, that Israel might find herself politically isolated, confronted by a UN-imposed solution fashioned by the pressures of the Soviet bloc and the majority of the Arab-Asian bloc.”
He cited the following formidable dangers in the present situation confronting the peace in the Middle East. “First, there is the danger that, the present maneuvers on the diplomatic front will resolve themselves not in a permanent peace, but in some tenuous status quo ante-situation with all its insufferable perils. Secondly, there is the danger, already referred to, of a UN-imposed pro-Arab settlement in the event of an Arab refusal to enter into direct negotiations with Israel.
U.S. STAND WILL BE THE DECISIVE FACTOR, DR. GOLDMANN SAYS
Emphasizing that “the decisive factor will be the position of the United States of America,” Dr. Goldmann charged that “it is unfortunate that on all essential questions of a definitive settlement between Israel and the Arab states, American policy is lacking in clarity and consistency and firmness.” He maintained that “this situation invites the Soviet bloc and Asian-African friends of the Arabs to jockey for position and move into the vacuum created by American vacillation.” He stressed the need for the millions of American friends of Israel, both Jews and non-Jews, to comprehend this danger and to “bend all their efforts to prevent the success of pro-Arab stratagems in the United Nations.”
“America has never had,” Dr. Goldmann continued, “a greater opportunity to demonstrate its maturity and its title to world leadership. The decisive front is no longer the Sinai desert or the Gaza Strip, or the councils of the Arab rulers: The decisive front is in Washington, Moscow and New Delhi. The latter has shown little of the moral courage to which it lays claim. Moscow has clearly demonstrated its disruptive intent. Hope lies with Washington, and those who shape our country’s policy must be made aware that Israel has the moral and articulate support of friends the world over who entertain confidence in America’s sense of equity.”
Dr. Goldmann warned that “unless these friends, especially in the United States, speak out forcefully and unambiguously with the voice of conscience and the vigor of moral conviction, the present crisis will linger on for years to come and entire world will stumble in the twilight of an eruptive armed armistice.” He further said that “only the Soviet bloc can benefit, today and tomorrow, as indeed it has always done, from Western vacillation and Middle Eastern chaos. I sincerely believe that those who argue for a peace through direct negotiations are working for the best interests of all peoples of the Middle East and the welfare of free nations.” Dr. Goldmann stated.
U.S. UNWITTINGLY PLAYED INTO SOVIET HANDS, DR. NEUMANN SAYS
Dr. Emanuel Neumann told the audience that the United States has “unwittingly played into the hands of the Soviet strategists.” He said: “We failed to stop the Soviet penetration and military build-up in the Middle East in its incipient stages. We did not act to prevent the vast shipments of Soviet arms in the complacent belief that only Israel was thereby threatened. Both the Soviets and Nasser, their willing tool and confederate, were emboldened by our acquiescence. They were further emboldened when Nasser, with Russian encouragement, grabbed the Suez Canal.”
Dr. Neumann further asserted that the “next step in the Moscow-Cairo timetable was a concerted attack to be launched against Israel by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, with the help of Soviet arms and technicians; and the fall of Israel was to serve, in turn, as a prelude for further stages in the totalitarian conspiracy against the free world.” He referred to the revelations that have come from London and Paris “of the fantastic quantities of arms valued at hundreds of millions of dollars which the Soviets have poured into Egypt and other Arab states; and the contingent of Russian experts and technicians–over 1,00 in number–already on the spot.”
Rabbi Miller said that to “achieve real peace in the Middle East the United Nations and especially the United States and the other NATO powers must strive without delay to achieve: 1. A peace agreement negotiated directly between Egypt and Israel; 2. The end of the economic boycott of Israel by the Arab states; 3. Free passage of ships flying the Israeli flag through the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Akaba; 4. Rectification of Israel’s frontiers with the neighboring Arab states which would consider Israel’s need for a strategic defense line; 5. A Western guarantee of Israel’s frontiers.”
The speaker further stressed that the knowledge that “an attack on Israel, whether by Russia or the Arabs, will mean a conflict with the NATO powers is the only thing that will deter Soviet aggression in the Middle East and turn Nasser’s Pan-Arabism back from its hysteria of anti-Israeli incitement to ways of peaceful progress and development.”
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.
