Eban-denounces Kahane As Demagogue

Foreign Minister Abba Eban denounced Rabbi Meir. Kahane last night for worsening Jewish-Arab relations. Eban called the Jewish Defense League leader a “demagogue” whose words and deeds ran counter to the Jewish spirit and created religious and political conflicts between Jews and Arabs.

Eban spoke at the opening session of the Zionist General Council (Actions Committee) meeting here. His remarks on Rabbi Kahane were the first public attack on the JDL leader by a top Israeli government official. Rabbi Kahane has been indicted under Israel’s sedition laws for sending hundreds of letters to Israeli Arabs offering to pay them to leave the country.

Eban acknowledged that problems existed in the realm of Jewish-Arab relations. He told the Council that while Israel stood ready for peace with her neighbors through negotiations, “We are acting between two poles.” On the one hand, he said, Israel cannot return to the situation that prevailed before the Six-Day War. On the other, Israel does not want fix borders that would embrace in Israel a million Arabs still fiercely opposed to it.

IMMIGRATION FROM WEST TOP AGENDA ITEM

The problems of immigration from affluent Western countries and Jewish education in the diaspora are the top items on the agenda of the Council meeting which will end Thursday. Louis Pincus, chairman of the World Zionist Organization Executive, said that Jewish education overseas was lacking and needed help from Israel to resolve its problems.

According to Pincus, “Not all the education that is called Jewish education is in fact Jewish education.” He added: “On this subject, as in all other subjects, the cooperation of Israel is required. The diaspora…cannot resolve this problem without the help of Israel.”

Deputy Knesset Speaker Yitzhak Navon, chairman of the General Council, claimed that diaspora Jewry was not aware of its need for Israel. “Alliya is the reason for the existence of the State of Israel. The olim need Israel and Israel needs the olim, but the majority of Jews who live in the diaspora don’t know to this day how much they need-Israel,” Navon said.

He disagreed with the belief expressed in some quarters that Western immigration was declining because of conditions in Israel, such as the housing shortage. “I don’t believe that the aliya of young people from the West depends on the number of rooms they receive in Israel.” he said.

Rabbi Mordechai Kirschblum, chairman of the General Council’s immigration and absorption department, said Zionists must give greater attention to Western aliya. He noted that while Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union increased 250 percent between 1971 and 1972, Western aliya dropped by 20-25 percent. (See separate Council Story P.3.)