Eshkol Hails Communication Role of JTA in Talk with President Arnow

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol called on world Jewry yesterday to stand by Israel to show that "we are a united people" during the postwar period. He made the appeal during a one-hour meeting in his office with Robert Arnow, President of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The Premier asked that the JTA, the world’s only Jewish news agency, continue to play, in the future its "crucial role" in informing Jewish public opinion and thus help to secure Jewish solidarity which, he told the JTA President, Israel continued to need.

He said the response of Jewish communities during the six-day June war was "exceptional" in world history and that "it was their and our finest hour." He told Mr. Arnow that the response was "a practical illustration of the old saying ‘Kol Israel Haverim — all Israel are brothers’" He strongly praised the JTA for contributing its share to "this eighth wonder of the world."

Emphasizing that Israel’s hour of need was not yet over, the Premier told the JTA President that "we still have serious military, political and economic problems." He disclosed that in recent days, 450 Soviet cargo planes had landed at Egyptian airfields and could have brought to Egypt at least 230 MIG jet fighter planes, on the basis that two such cargo planes are needed to transport one MIG fighter. He said that the "acute phase" of Israel’s diplomatic and political problems could last a long time.

He also told Mr. Arnow that what Israel most needed now was large-scale immigration, particularly from the western countries and said that in this area, too, the JTA "plays a major role by informing Jewish communities throughout the world about actual conditions in Israel."

Calling immigration Israel’s "number one problem." the Premier appealed for a massive aliyah particularly of people with technical skills and professional training.

Mr. Arnow also conferred with Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir. He was accompanied on his visit to the Premier by Mrs. Arnow.