The Arab states “are secrstly nursing the diabolic hope that the present explosive world situation will provide an opportunity for them to renew their onslaught on the state of Israel, Abba S. Eban, Israel Ambassador to the United States, warned last night in an address to the closing session of the Mizrachi Organization of America’s 30th annual convention here.
Mr. Eban termed Israel “an important factor in the Middle East of extreme importance to the democratic forces in the world.” He said that the Arab states, which have sought by blockade and boycott to wreck Israel, “will wake up one day soon to find that Israel has become agriculturally independent, and that it has found adequate markets elsewhere. In fact, it is not beyond reasonable expectation that Israel shall within time become economically self-sufficient.”
However, he warned that “preservation of political and military victories is not irrevocably assured. These must be crowned by economic success, and unless we win this battle we will lose all that we have won.”
Mendel Fisher, executive director of the Jewish National Fund, told the Orthodox delegates that the austerity prcgram was imposing a terrific hardship on the Jews of Israel and that it must not continue any longer than is absolntely essential. “The only way to improve the situation is to engage in an incensive program of cultivation and of utilizing at least 30 percent of the present population in the field of agriculture, which is the greatest and most urgent need of the country,” he declared.
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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.
