At a community-wide Israel Bond dinner of tribute here last night Golda Meir said that in the search for peace Israel has taken all the risks while the Arabs have risked nothing. She expressed the hope that there would be no further calls for movements of Israeli forces without concrete agreements providing Israel with defensible borders. The former Israeli Premier stressed that after five wars, Israel had an absolute right to a peace agreement based upon secure borders.
Discussing the demands of the PLO, Mrs. Meir asserted that Israel could not accept a separate Palestinian state because it would be turned into a Soviet base for the destruction of Israel.
The Israel Bond dinner, which was attended by more than 1500 community and civic leaders, also honored Henry and Irving Crown and A.N. Pritzker, prominent Chicago industrialists and Jewish communal leaders. They received the Israel Prime Minister’s Medal. Those in attendance represented commitments for the purchase of Israel Bonds amounting to $9,237,000.
Addressing an overflow Israel Bond dinner of more than 1400 persons Monday night in Philadelphia, Mrs. Meir declared that it is not only Israel but the entire Jewish people that the people of Israel are defending today. She repeatedly stressed the oneness of the Jewish people.
The event, which brought out many communal and civic leaders, including Gov. Milton J. Shapp of Pennsylvania and Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, Congressmen, and state representatives of the AFLCIO, produced a record sale of $3.8 million in State of Israel Bonds. More than 400 persons had to be seated in another room where they heard Mrs. Meir by closed-circuit television.
Referring to the authors of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Mrs. Meir wondered what the world have been like if they hadn’t dared to believe that what was important in their lives was possible. The Israeli leader emphasized that the United States was the only country that has stood by Israel and that this stand is greatly appreciated. Mrs. Meir, who addressed a meeting of the National Campaign Cabinet of the Israel Bond Organization in Washington last Friday, is also scheduled to be the guest of honor at a city-wide Israel Bond dinner in Boston June 1.
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.
