Former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban called on American Jewry to intensify its support of Israel and “continue to share the burden of 27 years of common experience.” Speaking last Sunday night to 500 volunteer campaign leaders of the United Jewish Appeal’s Southwest Region Conference at the Fairmount Hotel, Eban declared: “The burdens are many, and we look out to you from across the lives we have saved, the culture we have created, the graves we have dug, the tears we have shed, the passions we have aroused and the inexpressible hopes we have kindled.”
Eban stressed that “there has not been and never will be a Middle East without a sovereign Israel at the center of its life.” He said the Arab-Israel conflict is different from every other territorial dispute in the world since one side, the Arabs, does not recognize the sovereignty of the other, Israel. “Make no mistake,” Eban said, “there is no difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Zionism is the Jewish people’s sense of origin and destination in a land linked eternally with its name.”
Billy B.Goldberg, UJA’s Southwest Regional chairman and executive committee member, who was chairman of the three-day conference, stated; “In light of recent events at the United Nations and in Israel, this year’s Southwest Regional Conference takes on a new and urgent meaning. For us, it is the renewal of a very special process: to share in the responsibility for the destiny of our people. Therefore, the presence of every person of conscience is extremely vital. Our collective response must be an act of support…a positive expression of our concern.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
