American Public Opinion Can Play Vital Role in Securing Jewish Army, Ben-gurion Declares

Emphasizing that the Axis armies in Egypt still present a very grave threat to the security of Palestine, David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, today demanded the “immediate and full mobilization of all Jewish manpower in Palestine, without preference and without discrimination, on a basis of equality with all other people.”

Mr. Ben-Gurion stated that American public opinion can play a vital role in convincing the British Government that separate Jewish military units must be formed in Palestine. Speaking of American aid in the form of armaments, he disclosed that although some American planes and tanks were participating in the battle for the Middle East, it will be two to four months before large-scale aid from the United States can reach this area. This period is crucial, he pointed out; and utilization of Palestine Jews may enable the British forces to hold Rommel until the American arms arrive.

Reviewing the repeated but unsuccessful efforts of the Palestine Jews to secure military units of their own within the British Army, Mr. Ben-Gurion, who spoke at a press conference at the Hotel Commodore here arranged by the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, pointed out that at present there are about 13,000 Jews serving with the British forces, enough to form a division almost immediately. From the untapped reservoir of manpower in the country at least another three divisions could be organized, he declared. About 20,000 of these potential soldiers have seen military service in the armies of their countries of origin so that they would require very little additional training. The Agency chairman stressed the fact that at present only 4,000 of the Palestine Jews in the British Army are in combat units. About 1,500 are with the R.A.F., mostly as members of the ground crews, while another 2,500, who are ready for actual combat, have been kept in Palestine.

“The invasion of Palestine by Hitler, even temporarily, may result in the complete annihilation of the Jewish community there – men, women and children – and the total destruction of their work by the Nazis with the help of the Mufti,” Mr. Ben-Gurion stressed. “To the Jewish people throughout the world, this will mean more than the massacre of some 600,000 Jews; it will be the ruin of their Third Temple; the destruction of their Holy of Holies.

“It may be that with all the Jews of Palestine fighting to the last, invasion and destruction cannot be avoided. But even then it will be a matter of supreme importance whether Jews of Palestine perish as soldiers and men fighting their enemies or are slaughtered like defenseless sheep. Should our people in Palestine be massacred, having been denied the right of self-defense by the Mandatory power, it will not only be a most tragic disaster for Jews. It will deal a fatal blow to the prestige of the British government and bring grave moral damage to the cause of the United Nations. Public opinion throughout the civilized world will be aroused against this wanton sacrifice of a people needlessly deprived of the means of self-defense. This catastrophe threatening Palestine must be averted. There is no time to be lost.”