A challenge to the Israel Bond Organization to “bring to realization” the Herzlian vision of the Mediterranean-Dead Sea canal was presented by Premier Menachem Begin at the closing dinner of the Israel Bonds’ 30th Anniversary Conference last Thursday to 600 U.S., Canadian and European participants. “Could there be a greater enterprise in your own lives?” he asked. “Vision,” he stated, “is the corridor to creation of a new reality.”
The Israel Bond Organization has undertaken to sell an additional $100 million in Bonds over and above its annual sales as seed money for the energy project. Some 400 Canal Founders in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and other countries have each committed themselves to purchase $100,000 or more in Bonds for the project. At the dinner, general chairman of Israel Bonds, Sam Rothberg, presented Begin with a leather-bound copy of the 30-year history of Israel Bonds. Rabbi Leon Kronish of Miami served as dinner chairman and conference chairman.
Begin, whose 68th birthday coincided with the anniversary conference, was addressed by Sam Rothberg, who expressed “the hope and the prayer that the strength and wisdom of your leadership will carry forward to completion your heroic vission of peace for Israel.” The statement continued:
“On the eve of your journey to meet with the President of Egypt in Alexandria and later with the President of the United States in Washington, we, the members of the International Conference of Israel Bonds, pledge our full support to you in your efforts to preserve the security and freedom of the citizens of Israel in Eretz Yisrael.”
Yaacov Meridor, Interministerial Economic Coordinator in the new Cabinet, told the conferees that the Mediterranean-Dead Sea Canal is “the most significant project ever planned by Israel. It could be a turning point in our economic life.”
‘A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE’
The Bond anniversary was termed an “event which is a significant milestone in the history of Israel’s economic development,” by Minister of Finance Yoram Aridor. He told the conference that much of what he was reporting to them would “not have been possible had it not been for the achievement of the Israel Bond campaign over the past 30 years.”
On a visit to the Dead Sea region, during which 44 Canal Founders signed a special scroll to be placed in the foundation of the sea-to-sea canal hydroelectric plant, Israel’s new Minister of Energy, Yitzhak Berman, described the canal as furthering “the basis for cooperation between Jordan and Israel not only in energy production but for creating neighborly relations.”
At Nahariya, one of Israel’s northern communities hard hit during shelling from Lebanon during July, an enthusiastic reception was accorded Bond participants who joined in a demonstration of solidarity and identification with local citizens during a march through the town.
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.
