Goldmann Urges Big Power Pact to Remove Mid-east from Cold War

An agreement between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union to remove the entire Middle East from the “cold war” was urged tonight by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization and chairman of the Jewish Agency, at a public rally and reception sponsored by the American Zionist Council, representing all Zionist groups in the United States.

Dr. Goldmann maintained that such an agreement “as it has been achieved to sore extent in Europe and Korea, would set the atmosphere and conditions for a settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict.” At the same time the World Zionist leader denied reports that he proposed that Israel adopt a policy of formal neutrality in the East-West conflict. “I have never advocated such a policy and reports to this effect are a distortion of my views,” he declared.

Reviewing the latest developments in the Middle East, with particular emphasis of the Soviet position in that area and the current visit of Dag Hammarskjold there, Dr. Goldmann said that “the general position of the West in that region of the world has appreciably deteriorated in the course of the last year.” He further said that the Soviet Union has, in the past two years, acquired positions of some strength in the Middle Eastern countries and the Eisenhower Doctrine has not succeeded in altering this situation

DENIES HE EVER ADVOCATED A NEUTRALIST POLICY FOR ISRAEL

In his denial that he ever advocated a neturalist policy for Israel, Dr. Goldman added that “Israel needs friends and support, and both of these have consistently come from the West.” He further explained that what he proposed was that “the entire Middle East, by mutual agreement, be stricken as an item of conflict from the East-West agenda.”

“The present situation, he said, “is especially detrimental to Israel, because the intensification of the cold war in the Middle East and the overt hostility of the Soviet Union toward Israel has encouraged Arab extremists, reduced the prospects for an understanding between Israel and the Arab states, and increased the danger to Israel. Although Israel is confident in her capacity to hurl back Arab aggression, the fact that both East and West have engaged in an arms race and have been courting the Arab states constitutes a long-term military peril to Israel.”

The Zionist leader further asserted that “the Arab states thrive on the cold war It gives them an opportunity to play off the East against the West and the West against the East.” He said that on the other hand Israel would never resort to this type of tactical maneuver in the cold war. A genuine democracy, she is committed with every filler to the ideals of the free world, and its cultural and emotional commitments are Western oriented. Such a state does not play both sides against the middle,” he emphasized.

SAYS EMIGRATION FROM EAST EUROPEAN LANDS TO ISRAEL MAY INCREASE

Dr. Goldmann, who recently returned from an extended stay in Israel and visits to European countries, warned of the “tragic” consequences for Israel’s immigrant absorption unless new sources of income are found by the Jewish Agency for its diverse and monumental program of rescue and development. He called attention to the fact that for the first time in Israel’s ten year history the larger part of the immigration in 195 has come from East European countries. He further pointed out that the absorption of this immigration is costly.

“The current economic recession throughout the world, with a resultant restriction of credit, has now brought home to us the full brunt of the obligations we undertook, and unless new sources of income are found, the Jewish Agency’s diverse and monumental program in Israel will have to be tailored to the new financial conditions, with grave consequences for immigrant absorption, future immigration, and land development.” he warned. “This,” he continued, would be tragic, especially since there are some omens that immigration from East European countries may increase.

The Jewish Agency leader voiced the belief that “the reality of the Jewish plight behind the Iron Curtain will eventually dawn on those who now refuse Jews the right to emigrate” and added that “the absorption of East European Jews may become the great task that will confront Israel and world Jewry some time during the second decade of Israel’s existence.” Dr. Goldmann further voiced the belief that the day of such migration will cone, forced upon the Soviet Union by the pressures of reality.

In presenting Dr. Goldmann to the assembly, Rabbi Irving Miller president of the American Zionist Council, called attention to the need for a new orientation of Zionisan towards the Diaspora. Calling for the restoration of education to a primary position in the Zionist movement, Rabbi Miller said: “The spirit of purposive enlightenment which distinguished the early years of Zionism must be revived. The vision of a reinvigorated. creative Jewish people, its center in Israel and its arms embracing the dispersed hosts of Jewry, must be conjured up afresh and given new meaning. Above all, this vision must be rendered persuasive and attractive to our youth.”