Ben-gurion, Goldmann Exchange Sharp Views on Need of Zionist Movement

A sharp exchange of opinions between Premier David Ben-Gurion and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, took grace here at a meeting of the central committee of the Mapai, Israel’s Labor Party. called for the purpose of discussing the future of the world Zionist movement.

The meeting, which lasted 12 hours, was held in three sessions, all attended by Mr. Ben-Gurion, who is the top leader of the Mapai, the government party. Mr. Ben-Gurion, who does not believe in the necessity of further existence of the Zionist movement, now that Israel has been functioning for more than 10 years as an independent state, heatedly defended his viewpoint, but was countered by Dr. Goldmann and Mrs. Rose Jalprin who spoke on behalf of the executive of the world Zionist Organization. He was also opposed by Levi Eshkol, Moshe Sharett and other Mapai leaders.

Following excited discussions, the central committee adopted a proposal by Nor Sharett to expand the Zionist organization, and to support the decision reached on this effect last week at a combined meeting of leaders of the Israel Government and he Jewish Agency. The central committee also decided to submit the problem for discussion to all branches of Mapai and, when their discussions are concluded, to take up question again for final decision.

In the course of his heated arguments. Mr. Ben-Gurion attacked Dr. Goldmann, telling him that he is “neither an Israeli nor an-American, but a wandering Jew.” He demanded an immediate reply to the question “what is a Zionist,” and whether the present Zionist Organization is capable of teaching Hebrew in countries outside of Israel, and of fostering immigration to Israel.

“Will the Zionist Organization of America organize Aliya, which is Israel’s most pressing need? Will it organize Hebrew education, which is what Jews elsewhere need most?” Mr. Ben-Gurion asked. He then posed the question: “How can we explain to the young generation that there are two sorts of Jews–Zionists and ‘others’?” Asserting that Israel is the creation of the Jewish nation, and not of the Jewish Agency, he insisted that today there is no difference between a Zionist and a non-Zionist.

Dr. Goldmann, in a long address delivered calmly, warned against the notion by Israeli Jews that Jews outside Israel “are in their pockets.” He said that “the present generation is not typical as far as relations between the State of Israel and non-Israeli Jew are concerned. It is a generation that has passed through concentration camps and is proud of the State’s establishment.”

The president of the WZO strongly opposed the idea that there is no need for an international Jewish organization for fostering relations between Israel and Jews outside Israel. “To small Jewish communities,” he said, the World Zionist Organization “gives the feeling that they participate in shaping the Jewish Nation’s fate.”