Dr. Goldmann Speaks at Frankfurt University on Arab-israel Relations

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, making his first public address in Germany since 1932, told a Frankfurt University audience last night that lasting peace between Israel and the Arab countries was possible only if the Great Powers of East and West joined in guaranteeing Middle East stability. He delivered one of the Loeb Lectures instituted two years ago at the University for the teaching of Jewish history, democracy and religion.

Dr. Goldmann told the audience of German professors and students that the East-West conflict was accruing to the benefit of aggressive Arab nationalism that was not only detrimental to Israel’s peaceful existence but also to the welfare of the Arab countries as well. He said that if the Great Powers, instead of combatting each other, would come to recognize the reciprocal relations inherent in their influence in the Middle East situation, the “intriguing Arab game” of playing one side against the other would no longer be possible.

The Arab countries would then have to recognize the existence of Israel and, no longer being able to use Israel as an object of hostility, would have to start solving their problems of poverty and political corruption, he said. He added that he felt that the unity of the Arab states should be furthered, asserting that this would be beneficial, rather than detrimental, to Israel because as long as the Arab states were in conflict, they would only vie with one another in their hostility to Israel.

Commenting on the fact that he last spoke in Germany to a Zionist conference 26 years ago, Dr. Goldmann said he was deeply moved to be in Frankfurt where he had spent may years of a happy childhood. He credited the revival of German relations and the reparations agreement with Israel as “mainly earned by the great moral personality of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.”