Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion asserted today in an interview in the Paris daily, L’Aurore, that Israel had achieved substantial economic stability full employment and expansion of productivity but still faced the task of integrating “year after year tens of thousands of immigrants and possibly in the near future hundreds of thousands.”
The Prime Minister, who was interviewed by the mass circulation daily’s editor, Robert Lazuric, said that one of the main tasks facing Israel was the narrowing of the “cultural gap” between European and Oriental immigrants. He described Israeli-French relations as “the very best, ” adding that he found friendship for Israel in political and military circles “and also on the part of President de Gaulle, ” whom he called “France’s savior.”
He expressed the belief that the western world and the Soviet Union were steadily drawing closer together. He said this was developing in response to the growing demand by Russia’s masses for better standards of living and to the Chinese “danger, ” of which the Soviets were “fully aware.”
Another reason, the Prime Minister added, was European unity. “I am for a United States of Europe and I am convinced that this will become a reality, ” he said. He also expressed the view that Britain would eventually be admitted to the European Economic Community which “will become one of the strongest elements” in world affairs.
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.
