The 61st annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America opened here tonight with major addresses by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, and Dr. Enanuel Neumann, ZOA president, analyzing the present situation in Israel and dealing with problems affecting the Zionist movement in the United States, More than 1,000 delegates and guests attended the opening session of the four-day convention.
Dr. Goldmann told the delegates that a certain improvement is now being noticed in Israel’s situation. The process of Arab unification, which seemed to be a very fast one after the revolution in Iraq, and which threatened Israel with an encirclement by hostile Arab regimes, apparently is proceeding much more slowly in recent weeks and meeting greater difficulties than originally appeared, he said.
“The cleavage within the Arab bloc between the Nasser group and his opponents has become serious and it looks that for the time being, even after the evacuation of the British forces in Jordan Hussein will be able to maintain himself, at least for a certain while,” Dr. Goldmann stated. “What is more important even is that the Western world is assessing Israel’s importance with greater understanding than ever before and is more ready more than ever to enable Israel to maintain its independence and integrity.”
On the other hand, Dr. Goldmann warned that in the long run Atab nationalism was bound to grow and reach a certain measure of Arab unity, a fact which Israel will have to take into serious consideration from the point of view of its long term policies. “The main question with regard to Arab nationalism is if it will remain aggressive and destructive or turn into more constructive and cooperative channels. Both the relation ship of the Arab world to Israel and to the West will depend on this crucial problem of how Arab nationalism in the future will develop,” the world Zionist leader said.
DR. GOLDMANN LISTS THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS FACING ISRAEL
Dr. Goldmann listed three key problems which Israel must solve as normalization of relations with the Arab world, attaining a larger measure of economic independence and achieving more effective cooperation between Israel and Jewish communities through out the world.
Dr. Goldmann said there were grounds for hoping that normalization of relations with the Arab world might be achieved in Israel’s second decade. In reviewing the problem of economic independence, he noted that important sources of funds during the first decade would diminish or end soon, particularly reparations payments from the West German Government, which currently represent the largest single item in Israel’s overseas income. This development, he stated, will require the Jews in other countries to make good the loss of such income.
The World Zionist leader called the problem of increasing cooperation between Israel and world Jewry the most decisive of the three issues. He said that economic phases of such cooperation might be more difficult than in the first decade, particularly if any large immigration from Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union, should materialize in the next ten years.
Israel will not be able to solve any of these problems without an increasing degree of participation by the Jewish people as a whole, Dr. Goldmann warned. He said this fact increased the importance of the Zionist movement which has the task of mobilizing the Jewish communities for a large measure of the responsibility of aiding Israel to become fully consolidated both politically and economically in its second decade.
DR. NEUMANN VOICES APPEAL TO ARABS FOR PEACEFUL COOPERATION
Dr. Neumann voiced a fervent appeal to the Arabs–the Arab peoples, to their intellectuals and forward-looking leaders–calling upon them to “let us both, together begin to cultivate a brighter vision for the future, rather than nurse the bitter grievances of the past.”
At the same time, the American Zionist leader warned that “the comparative lull in the Middle East is likely to be broken at any moment by new and greater explosions, as the result of Nasser’s relentless bid for empire.”
In his call to the Arabs, Dr. Neumann warned: “You cannot hope to destroy Israel. Neither the Israel nor we, nor the world at large will ever permit it. Nor can Israel, whatever its growth, ever seek your destruction. These facts and not the irresponsible visions and provocations of adventurers, are the inescapable realities to which all of us must accommodate ourselves. The peaceful cooperation of the Jews and Arabs striving fraternally towards a common good–that must be our vision of the future.”
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.
