Mass rallies designed to express the solidarity of Argentina’s Jews with Israel in this moment of danger for the Jewish State were held here and in other major Argentine cities last night. The demonstrations were sponsored by the Zionist Central Council of Argentina.
Among the featured speakers at the Buenos Aires meeting were members of the Consultative National Council, temporary ruling body of the Argentine until a new constitutional regime is established, and leaders of various Argentine parties. They included Dr. Oscar Alende, member of the Council and leader of the Union Civica Radical, strongest opposition party during the Peronista regime; Mrs. Alicia Moreau Justo, member of the Council and leading figure in the Socialist Party, and Dr. Santiago Fassi, another leader of the UCR. Msgr. Gustavo Franchesi, well known Catholic dignitary who visited Israel three years ago and returned to write enthusiastic articles about his experiences, also spoke.
Mrs. Moreau Justo, who was greeted with several ovations before, during and after she spoke, warmly praised the Israel people for their Socialist achievements and for the way in which they accepted the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to their shores. “If we condone the territorial dismemberment of Israel we shall be accomplices in an abominable crime,” she said, insisting that the “world’s cowardice” before Hitler must not be repeated.
Dr. Alende declared that Argentina must speak out clearly before the powerful nations against the great danger to Israel in the current arms race in the Middle East. He asked whether the flood of arms to Egypt was meant to drive the British out of Suez, which they had already left, or to make war on Israel. Dr. Fassi called Israel a “model democracy” and declared “we must prevent war.”
Msgr. Franchesi quoted Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich, who in 1936 told the Germans that “if we do not defend the Jews we have no right to complain when we are persecuted.” The clergyman assured his audience that if war came “your brethren in Israel” will know how to fight. He said the Arabs were merely tools of munitions merchants.
Dr. Arieh Kubovi, Israel Ambassador to the Argentine, compared the current Middle East situation with the time of Munich, just before Czechoslovakia was sold out to Hitler, and disputed the notion that taking territory from Israel to appease the Arabs was a “compromise” and said that Israel was determined to protect its full territory from Dan to Eilath. He called for arms and security guarantees from the West. Other speakers included Dr. Isaac Goldenberg, chairman of the Zionist Central Council, and Jaime Finkelstein, leader of the Left Poale Zion.
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