The chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith cautioned the world Jewish community that time is not on the side of Israel in its search for peace in the Middle East. Burton Joseph of Minneapolis told the B’nai B’rith International Board of Governors meeting for its annual midsummer session that he is “terribly anxious” over the current diplomatic stalemate because of the apparent trends resulting from the huge reservoir of petrodollars flowing into and out of Arab coffers.
The Arab largesse of some $80 billion annually has enabled the Arab states to enlarge their boycott against Israel to encompass the entire world, Joseph said. He added that despite the success of the American Jewish community, led by B’nai B’rith’s ADL, in gaining legislation outlawing secondary and tertiary boycotts, the potential power held by the Arabs by virtue of these vast funds is likely to have an invidious effect.
“It is too much to expect” that all Western industrial and banking firms can–or will–resist the lure of the billions of dollars dangling before them, he declared. As a consequence, Jewish influence is likely to erode steadily as the Arabs continue to infiltrate the American economy, he said.
Joseph cited growing Arab toeholds and propaganda campaigns on both the college campuses and corporate boardrooms and said that Houston, Texas,–the oil center of the United States–is the “Arab capital in America.” yet, he added, peace in the Middle East cannot be imposed on the adversary states. It can come only from the nations whose lives are on the line.
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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.
