Eshkol Proposal to Elevate Allon to Absorption Department Chief Opposed

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was locked in intensive “consultations” with members of his own Israel Labor Party and with his coalition partners in the national unity government today. His aim was to persuade them to agree to his proposal to elevate Labor Minister Yigal Allon to the rank of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the projected new Absorption Department. But Mr. Eshkol has run into serious political opposition, even among elements of his own party. The basis of the opposition appeared to be a resistance to any drastic changes in the Cabinet only a year before the next national elections. (In Cairo, the Government’s official spokesman. Dr. Mohammed H. el-Zayyat, said that a call by Mr. Eshkol for greater Jewish immigration to Israel was presumptuous and an act of moral aggression against Jews elsewhere in the world.)

The 27th World Zionist Congress will probably be extended by at least another day beyond its 10-day tenure, it was indicated here today. Congress committees were making no headway in hammering out policies to be submitted to a vote by the full Congress. A plenary session scheduled for tomorrow was postponed so that the committees can continue their work.

The committee on Zionist organization has apparently run into a snag in deliberations over the Jerusalem Program and decided to set up a sub-committee composed of its members and members of the Congress’ political committee to take up the matter. The Jerusalem Program was laid down in 1951 at the first Zionist Congress held after Israel’s 1948 War for Independence. It outlined very broadly the tasks of the Zionist movement in light of the achievement of the main Zionist goal – establishment of Jewish Statehood. One aim of the present Congress is to spell out in greater detail the Zionist tasks. particularly in the areas of immigration and Jewish education abroad.