Abba Eban, Israel’s former Foreign Minister, warned last night against the economic peril facing the Jewish State. “Inspiration comes to us from our faith and our history, but if our economy declines, if inflation creeps upward, if productivity languishes, if immigration dwindles, if emigration scars, if international isolation becomes almost complete, is there not a chance that we shall come face to face with the greatest of all dangers? The danger that Israel will no longer be firm in the conviction of its own eternity, “Eban declared.
He gave the keynote address to the annual Histodrut Economic Conference for Israel sponsored by the Israel Histodrut foundation at the Konover Hotel here. More than 30 Jewish communities from throughout the U.S. and Canada are represented here.
Pointing out that during Chanukah, 1980 Histodrut will celebrate its 60th anniversary, Dr. Sol Stein, president of the Israel Histodrut Foundation, said that $4,357,000 in commitments was announced at this conference toward a $10 million total of commitments for the social and welfare programs of Histodrut which serve the needs of more than 75 percent of the people in Israel.
In his address to the participants, which included representatives of the State of Israel and leading figures of the Labor Zionist movement, Eban spoke about Israel being at a low point in its self-assurance- “The paradox,” he declared, “is that this particular Israeli morale comes at a time of one of our greatest national achievements….when this week for the first time an Israeli flog flies at the central capital of the Arab and Moslem world and next week the Egyptian flag will fly on Israeli soil.”
CITES ‘CRISIS OF MORALE’
At this, the 14th annual Histodrut Economic Conference for Israel, Eban told the group that “ten months after the signing of the peace treaty, Israel does find itself in a crisis of morale. In its anxiety, Israel must look beyond its frontiers for reinforcements. Where can we look, if not to the sustaining force of Jewish solidarity. The only answer to Moslem solidarity for Israel’s destruction is a dramatic assertion of Jewish solidarity in defense of Israel.”
Dr. Leon Kronish, national chairman of the board of directors of the Israel Histodrut Foundation, presented the $60 Million Award to Sam and Rebecca Feinstein of West Palm Beach, in recognition of their exemplary contributions to the programs of Histodrut in Israel.
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