Dr. Nahum Goldmann said here today that the Soviet Union wielded more tangible influence on the Arabs tran did the United States and that Israel-Arab peace was more likely to come via Moscow than Washington.
For that reason, the World Zionist Organization president told the political committee of the 26th World Zionist Congress, Israel should be more interested in cementing good relations with the Soviets. He noted that Israel was taking steps in that direction. He also said it was in Israel’s interest that relations between the United States and the Arab countries be amicable.
Dr. Goldmann stressed the importance of strengthening Israel’s deterrent capacity and the need of all world Jewish organizations to counter the expansion of Arab propaganda which is anti-Jewish.
Asserting there had been no improvement in the situation of Soviet Jewry, he said the dissatisfaction voiced even by some Communist parties in various countries over the treatment of Russian Jews might bring about a policy change among Soviet authorities. He suggested that relations between the East and the West might also influence the Soviet attitude toward Israel and Soviet Jewry.
The impression that Israel and the Jewish people are an anti-Soviet factor must be avoided, he warned. At the same time he said that the Jewish struggle to improve the situation of Soviet Jewry must be continued.
He expressed confidence that West Germany would establish diplomatic relations with Israel in the not too distant future. He said it was West Germany’s moral duty to recall the scientists working in Egypt on advanced weapons systems and claimed that the United States was exerting pressure on Bonn against such recall for fear that the German scientists might be replaced by Russians.
(In Bonn, the United States Embassy today denied charges that the United States has put pressure on the West German Government to keep it from calling home German scientists and military technicians who are working on armament projects in Egypt. The Embassy referred to the statement by Dr. Goldmann in Jerusalem that such pressure has been applied.)
URGES REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF WORLD ZIONIST ORGANIZATION
Dr. Goldmann also expressed belief that the West German time limit for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals for murder would be extended from its present 20 to 30 years. He reported also that the West German Government had accepted the principle of liability to compensate victims of Nazism from Eastern Europe. He said an amendment to the West German reparation law was under consideration likely to involve hundreds of millions of dollars of which a large percentage would go to Jewish organizations.
Appearing before the Committee on Structure and Functions of the Zionist Organization, Dr, Goldmann said he had made his candidacy for another term as president of the World Zionist Organization conditional on a proposal for major changes in the movement’s structure.
He cited his proposal for creation of a special committee to prepare a new version of the World Zionist Organization constitution in regard to its various structural and functional aspects. He also asked that the Actions Committee be authorized to coopt additional members to the executive and to the Council to be elected at the current Congress.
Zvi Lurie, head of the Agency organization department, reported to the committee of efforts to bring about unified Zionist frameworks in various countries and emphasized that the least progress had been made in American Zionism.
PINCUS REPORTS JEWISH AGENCY OWES $270,000,000 IN LOANS
Aryeh L. Pincus, Jewish Agency treasurer, reported that Agency expenditures during the past four years totaled $500,000,000, of which $171,000,000 had been raised by loans. He said by the end of this year the total loan burden would be $270,000,000 involving interests payments of $15,000,000 annually.
S, Z. Shragai, head of the Jewish Agency immigration department, told the Youth and Hechalutz committee that he expected in the next four years an immigration of 250,000 as in the past four. He expressed the hope that the Soviet Union would respond to pleas on behalf of Russian Jews “at least in the area of family reunion.” He criticized the lack of Zionist work in the past decade among Algerian Jews, asserting that as a result, only 5,000 of the 140,000 Jews who left Algeria came to Israel.
Eliahu Dobkin, member of the Agency executive, deplored the fact that only six percent of the budget was earmarked for work in the youth and hechalutz fields. He stressed the need for more Zionist emissaries to Jewish communities in other countries and asserted that a Zionist youth movement was unthinkable without making education for aliyah central. He also urged an end to competition between the present six pioneering youth movements.
Ranaan Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency’s agriculture settlement department, said that the development of Israel agriculture must be directed to opportunities in European markets. He said this required development of new ideas in Israeli farming and deepening of the integration of industry in farm areas. He said Israel now has 300,000 farms, He predicted that Israeli agriculture would be able to provide livelihoods for more than 500,000 Israelis by 1980. He urged a 300,000,000 pound ($100,000,000) budget for next year’s activities of his department in the Galilee and other new areas and completion of present agricultural settlement work.
Leo Dultzin, head of the economic department, demanded enactment of legislation to assist the integration of middle class immigrants from the free countries, similar to aid granted foreign investors.
Marie Syrkin of Cambridge, Mass., will be named by the Ihud Olami to replace the late Louis Segal as a member of the executive of the Jewish Agency, it was reported here today, A leader of the Labor Zionist Organization of America, Miss Syrkin is editor of the Jewish Frontier. She is also associate professor of humanities at Brandeis University.
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.
