Prime Minister David Ben Gurion declared here today that he does not foresee world war. Addressing the national convention of the Progressive Party, he declared:
“I do not share fears of a third world war. I know that America would not attack Russia. And, from my study of Communism, I know that it would refrain from such stupidity. Communism knows that, though it might destroy the West, it might also destroy the East.”
However, the Prime Minister added, the cold war has another aspect, through its influence on the Afro-Asian nations which achieved independence, or are on the verge of independence during a period of revolution. “Those nations,” he said, “do not want Communism. But, at the same time, they cannot afford pure capitalistic regimes.”
Israel, said the Premier, has been approached for help by the new Afro-Asian states because “it has created a new society by combining freedom of creative man with some cooperation and equality.”
A demand that the Progressive Party, which is at present the only non-Socialist group in Israel’s coalition government, be given another Cabinet post was voiced at the convention by the Progressives’ president, Dr. Pinhas Rosen, Minister of Justice.
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