The 53rd national convention of Hadassah, American women’s Zionist organization, unanimously adopted today a special resolution welcoming the five-point policy statement on the Middle East enunciated by President Johnson and supported by a majority of Congress, affirming that this policy “reflects American political wisdom and the highest standards of international morality.” The resolution declared that “attempts to confuse public opinion by ignoring these standards and distorting the facts must be vigorously resisted.” It pledged Hadassah to work unceasingly for peace in the Middle East.
In another resolution, Hadassah urged the United States Government to “insist” that the International Committee of the Red Cross be permitted to investigate the treatment of Jewish civilians in Arab countries.” It called for necessary measures to “assure that Jews who remain in Arab lands will be permitted to live in dignity and freedom and that those who choose to emigrate be permitted to do so.”
Hadassah also asked the United States Government, in another resolution, for maximum effort in the United Nations and through diplomatic channels to convince the Soviet Union to end the “accelerated anti-Semitic propaganda” in the Soviet Union and to restore its Jewish citizens to a position of equality with all other ethnic groups, with freedom to practice their religion and pursue their cultural life as Jews.
Dr. Marver H. Bernstein, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, told the delegates that “politically, the Middle East is no longer a vital battleground of Soviet and American forces.” He said that the “commanding and powerful Soviet presence” in the Eastern Mediterranean “does not appear to be a catastrophe for American security.” In this situation, he emphasized, the “main impetus” for settling Middle East problems “must come from the immediate parties and not the great powers.” Dean Bernstein characterized the situation as a “conflict between Arab pride and dignity and Jewish survival, a conflict that may not be soluble by economic aid, territorial concessions and water projects.”
Mrs. Max Matzkin of Waterbury, Conn., Hadassah’s national chairman for Zionist affairs, said that the organization “welcomed” steps to bring Israel to arms parity with the Arab nations, but she stressed Hadassah’s position that “the most important objective in the Middle East is peace.” She said that “face-to-face” negotiation between Israel and the Arab nations was the “only” way to achieve peace.
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.
