R.N. Carvalho, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, declared last night “it would be wrong, both morally and tactically, for the British Government or any other to give either of the new Arab federations the impression that there was the slightest likelihood that the Arab-Israel frontier dispute could be solved on the basis of the 1947 United Nations partition recommendations.”
Speaking at a meeting of the Association’s council, Mr. Carvalho expressed regret that the British Government apparently had not abandoned efforts to seek a settlement of the Arab-Israel dispute on the basis of the Guildhall speech by the then Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, in which he urged Israel to accept territorial changes.
Mr. Carvalho said he welcomed proposals to establish an advisory council of Jewish leaders in countries outside Israel to work with the Jewish Agency executive. “It has always been my opinion that Jews outside of Israel, no matter how devoted to the State or how important their contribution to Zionism in the past or to Israel in the present, cannot expect to play the same role in Israel’s affairs as citizens of that country,” he declared.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews hit out earlier against the British Governments continued adherence to the idea of Israeli territorial concession as the price of a settlement with the Arab states. A statement by the Board of Deputies’ Israel committee said: “Any suggestion, even if only by inference, that Israel must make unilateral concessions to the Arab states serves merely to encourage warlike intransigeance among these states. It is no help to a peace settlement, but rather increases the tension and may precipitate a dangerous situation.”
Asserting that the reaffirmation of the Guildhall speech principles had brought Britain criticism at home and abroad, the committee stated that Israel had always made clear her readiness to sit down with the Arabs and work out a basis for a permanent peace involving, among other points, rectification by mutual consent of border anomalies and minor adjustments of territory involving no material change from the present lines.
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