Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver last night listed four major reasons why the state of Israel cannot surrender the Negev to the Arabs As recommended by the late U.N. mediator Count Folks Bernadotte. In a statement to the press the chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency declared that the enemies of Israel are attempting to use the assassination of Bernadette to cripple the Jewish state.
The first reason which Rabbi Silver advanced for the impossibility of Israel’s agreeing to the loss of the Negev was that by so doing the Jewish state would be drastically reducing its agricultural land reserve and thereby reducing its capacity to abort immigration. “In this way, ” he pointed out, “the persistent objective of the enemies of Israel, which has ever been to prevent or severely limit Jewish immigrates into Palestine, would be achieved.”
In surrendering the southern area; the Jews would be also giving up all access to the mineral deposits of the Dead Sea, he stated. These minerals, Rabbi Silver added, constitute perhaps the only reserve of valuable minerals available to Israel and the “basis of a varied and highly skilled chemical industry.” Loss of the area would also deprive Israel of the possible use of a port at Akaba on the Red Sea and the likely possibility of oil deposits. The latter is “perhaps the real reason why it is now proposed to take this territory away from Israel and hand it over to a puppet of Britain.” he asserted.
Turning to the proposed internationalization of Jerusalem, Rabbi Silver said that the Jews originally agreed to such a proposal on the assumption that the Arabs would respect U.N. control of the city and not molest its 90,000 Jewish inhabitants. However, subsequent developments have proved that the Arabs do not intend to permit the U.N. to maintain Jerusalem as an international city, he stated.
“It is inconceivable that the Jews of Jerusalem and Israel will ever again consent to leave Jerusalem in the midst of hostile Arab sea, unconnected with Israel, and with no greater security for their lives and property than would be involved in the nominal ‘control’ of the United Nations,” he declared.
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