American Jews: Brothers and Partners in the Growth of Israel by Murray Zuckoff, JTA News Editor

American Jewish communities are vibrant and viable and American Jews are deeply committed to the growth and survival of the State of Israel. This was the feeling Israel’s Minister of Finance, Pinhas Sapir, came away with after visiting eight Jewish communities during his 11-day tour of the United States on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal and the Israel Bonds Organization. In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this weekend before his departure from the U.S. to Europe and from there back to Israel, Sapir described American Jews as “more than Jews.” He said they are “brothers, partners in what they think and feel for Israel.” During this interview in his suite at the Barclay Hotel, Sapir also talked about the deep and abiding friendship between the U.S. and Israel, emphasized that the rumor current in Israel that Premier Golda Meir might designate him as Premier was “only a rumor,” underscored that Israel wanted peace with her neighbors, dismissed the Israeli “New Left” as “nil” both in numbers and influence in Israel’s political life, and stressed that Israel is prepared to discuss peace at the negotiating table not in the press. Since arriving in the U.S., the 62-year-old Finance Minister had been on the go. One of his aides noted that Sapir seldom had more than five hours of sleep and was indefatigable in his activities. The young aide remarked, laughing: “I can’t keep up with him. I don’t know how he does it. His schedule is making a wreck out of me.”

Another aide noted that the night before the JTA interview, Sapir had addressed several meetings, returned to his suite where he discussed various matters with a visitor until 1:30 a. m., awoke at 6 a. m. and conducted his first interview an hour later. “He’s been going at it since then without a break,” the aide said in amazement. By late afternoon, Sapir’s suite was filled with people waiting to talk to him. The Finance Minister told the JTA that “I’m highly moved by the feelings of the Jews I met here, with their participation on behalf of Israel through UJA and Israel Bonds, with their devotion to Israel’s needs in the fields of absorption, higher education and other most important things Israel needs.” He noted that both Israel Bonds and UJA were vitally instrumental in aiding Israel financially to help meet its various economic and cultural needs. “The number of bonds sold in 1970 speaks for itself,” he observed. Sapir noted that in 1970 some $210 million in bonds was sold compared to $160 million in 1969. “The goal for this year is $400 million,” he said. “This is an eloquent expression of what Jews feel and I call them more than Jews. They are brothers, partners in what they think and feel for Israel.” Sapir said he found many Jews-young and old-thinking and talking about settling in Israel. “I found this among many youngsters and among people who have no problems in earning a living here,” he beamed. “Many told me: ‘Maybe I will go. Maybe my children will go.’ This is no less important than money.”

U.S., ISRAEL MAY DIFFER ON SOME PROBLEMS BUT FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN TWO IS A FACT

Asked whether he believed that the U.S. is a firm and reliable ally, Sapir declared: “I will say they are helping us, they are friendly. We can have different views or some problems we will disagree on political problems, but we will discuss and we will try to convince them. But the friendship is a fact.” Sapir recalled that on Jan. 4 he told the Knesset that “we are thankful to the President (Nixon), to the administration and to the people of the United States for selling us arms and for the $500 million we received in credits.” A day before the interview, a leader of the French Radical Party, Jean Jacques Servan-Schreiber, said in Paris that he believed the U.S. would go to war to defend Israel’s right to exist. Sapir was asked whether he thought the U.S. would actually go that far. “I hope it will not come to another war,” he said. “I don’t want to speculate on what America will do. Let us hope that all parties concerned and our neighbors will understand that war is not necessary-not for them and not for us.” Sapir expressed reluctance to discuss the differences or similarities between the peace plan attributed to Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Dayan calling for a thinning out of armed forces by Israel and Egypt along the Suez Canal and that offered last week by Mrs. Meir in her speech to the Knesset. Sapir said that Dayan denied the existence of a “Dayan peace plan” and added that “I know of no Israeli who is opposed to peace.”

He stated that Israel has not drawn up any peace maps defining secure and defensible borders because until now “it was not necessary and too early to talk about that.” Sapir also declined to discuss reports that United Nations special Mideast peace mediator Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring had offered his own peace plan last week. “We have stressed before and will stress again that peace negotiations do not take place in the press or on the streets but at a table.” Several days before the interview there were reports from Israel referred to as rumors that Mrs. Meir might designate Sapir as Premier if she decided to step down before her term expired in 1973. “Forget it.” Sapir said. “It’s just a rumor. She is Premier and she will stay in the Cabinet for the next two years and eight months. After that we shall see.” Returning to the American scene, Sapir said that in his travels and discussions with Jewish youths here he found no one whom he could term as a “self-hating Jew” nor Jewish youths who hated Israel or Judaism. “Maybe,” he laughed, “I just didn’t travel in the right circles. In any event, even Jewish youngsters can make mistakes.” Asked about the “generation gap” in Israel, Sapir noted that the young should be permitted to go their own way. “When one becomes older, thinking becomes more steady, more solid. When we were young we too had different ideas.” Referring to American Jewish youth, Sapir described them as “the fountainhead” of the Jewish people.