Eban Urges Speedy U.S. Arms to Avert War This Summer

Five hundred delegates to the emergency conference on Israel convoked by the presidents of 17 American Jewish organizations were told tonight by Ambassador Abba S. Eban that “it is of paramount urgency that Israel’s defences be strengthened, especially in the air, in order to maintain her basic military deterrent and thus preclude a conflict in the Summer of this year.”

The delegates were warned by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the Jewish Agency, that there is “no probability that either the United States or France will soon send arms to Israel.” Dr. Goldmann declared that “the shapers of American policy are men of good will and honest intent, but, unfortunately, they have vacillated too long, they have lacked determination, they have surrendered to hesitation and it is up to the American people now to instruct them in the course of strong and fearless action. If the American people wills it, the State Department will do its will.” He stressed that “we must not confound consideration of Israel’s request for arms with the meeting of this request.”

Dr. Goldmann condemned as “moral hypocrisy” a policy of withholding aid to Israel because an “alarmed people” had not acted with “sober judgment, sweet reason and psychological restraint.” He affirmed that “I, for one, shall not presume to pass judgment on Israel’s actions, even on such action that has been described as detrimental to Israel’s own interests and complicating a dangerous situation.”

GOLDMANN DENOUNCES “MORAL HYPOCRISY” IN DIPLOMACY

“But I do know,” he continued, “and I state this without equivocation or qualification, that to cite such action as an excuse for further delay of Israel’s request for arms and a security guaranty, is to season diplomacy with moral hypocrisy and to court peril. We can no more afford to ignore the psychological temper of the Israel people than we can afford to ignore the psychological temper of the Arab people.”

In a reference to views expressed by the State Department sources in the past, Dr. Goldmann said that “some people in the State Department are preoccupied day, and night, with Nasser’s mood, Salem’s whims and the vagaries of the Arab public. I do not criticize them for this preoccupation,” he commented, “but they would accrue no harm if they showed also some concern for the mood of Ben Gurion, the feelings of Sharett and the temper of Israel’s public opinion. It would be well for the State Department to recall that an important change has occurred in the destiny of a considerable fraction of the Jewish people. The Israelis may die in battle but they will not wait to be massacred.”

Should the United States arm Israel, Dr. Goldmann declared, “the Arab States will at once realize that what confronts them is not a cake-walk victory but a senseless and futile arms race. Should America extend security guarantees to Israel, the Arab states would be forced to realize that their hope of destroying Israel is a dangerous illusion. It is at this point that they would be ready to consider peace.”

Throughout his address, Ambassador Eban returned again and again to the urgency and primacy of arms for the defense of Israel. “Amongst all our objectives, the attainment of additional arms for our defense claims overriding and paramount urgency. If we fail in this, we may have failed in everything, for we shall not have the respite or the stability of heart with which to explore any more leisurely path towards safety.”

Referring to Israel’s requests for arms from the United States and the other Western Powers, Mr. Eban said that “we dare not believe that our requests for this moderate reinforcement will be left without early response. We cannot allow ourselves to conceive that there are friendly governments which positively desire Israel to lie, naked and exposed, at the mercy of its adversaries, with its survival hanging on the dubious thread of the Egyptian dictator’s condescension.

SECURITY PACT SEEN DISPELLING WAR DANGER

“We know,” he told the conference, “that nothing could be further from the purposes of Western statesmanship than to see us with our hands held behind our backs while our neighbors make ready for a stunning blow to our head and heart. Everything that we believe concerning the chivalry and decency of the free peoples in the West forbids us even to allow such a contingency to cross our minds.”

The Israel envoy said the West could do much to dispel war danger by proclaiming, in contractual terms, its determination to resist any change of the existing borders by force. He pointed out that “if the three Western Powers regard their 1950 Tripartite Declaration as a genuine, binding obligation, how can they refuse to give it the form and content relevant to the circumstances of our time and to the contingencies which we face?”

The Ambassador welcomed “any sincere advocacy and pursuit of a peace settlement,” but warned that “to say that peace is only possible on the basis of Israel’s mutilation is to say that peace is not possible at all.” If this is the case, he said, “then it is all the more urgent to ensure the next best objective,” the stabilization of military power balance. He said “all who cherish Israel’s statehood as the dearest possession of the Jewish people since antiquity should face the coming months in deep solemnity and stern resolution.”

U.S. LABOR SUPPORTS ISRAEL’S POSITION.

In a message to the conference, George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, placed the American Labor movement in support of Israel and Israel’s appeal for arms.

Mr. Meany said that “AFL-CIO considers recent intervention of Soviet Russia into Middle Eastern affairs grave threat to world peace. We feel America and allies, together with United Nations, should act to prevent aggression in that area. Positive steps should include mutual defense pacts, economic aid and promotion of friendly relations between Israel and Arab nations based on mutual recognition of each others existence and territorial integrity.”

President Walter P. Reuther of the United Automobile Workers, told the Conference that “the ability of Israel to defend itself must be maintained.” He urged that the United States enter a mutual security pact with Israel with adherence open to other nations in the area participating in an overall peace settlement.

Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, who presided at the opening session, said the 17 organizations represented proclaimed with “one voice” that “the imbalance in the Middle East ought to be rectified in terms of arms and in terms of administered rebuke.”

Adolph Held, chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee, charged that Col. Nasser of Egypt is Bulganin’s messenger boy in the Middle East just as the Grand Mufti was Hitler’s. Appeasement of tyranny, he warned, “has always proved catastrophic when employed by democracies.”