Mrs. Golda Meir, former Foreign Minister of Israel, declared at a Balfour Day celebration here yesterday that, if there had been 1.5 million Jews in Palestine in 1947, instead of 600,000, the hostilities of 1948, 1956 and 1967 might have been avoided. She called on American Jewry “to fill the vast space which exists between Israeli settlements with Jews of all ages, in order that the recurrent crises which exist primarily because of Israel’s small population may be averted.”
Mrs. Meir, who is secretary-general of the dominant Mapai Party in Israel, addressed a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration sponsored by the American Zionist Council and the Theodor Herzl Institute. She said Israel now had the opportunity to live in security and avoid future bloodshed “if Jews from America will come in large numbers, an opportunity not to be missed.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
