Hadassah Convention Suggests Program on Mid-east to U.S. Government

A seven-point resolution calling upon the next Administration in Washington to “vigorously pursue” a program for economic progress, political stability and peace in the Middle East as “necessary to America’s security and to the defense of freedom” was adopted here today at the national convention of the Hadassah, The resolution urges:the Administration to:

1. Oppose any aggression in the Middle East,

2. Take effective measures to insure that arms imbalance shall not result in the Middle East.

3. Continue economic assistance to Israel and the Arab people under the conditions set forth in the Douglas-Keating amendment to the Mutual Security Act, authorizing the Administration to withhold American assistance from countries which wage economic warfare against other nations also receiving assistance from the United States.

4. Intensify United States efforts to insure that the Suez Canal is opened to the shipping of all nations without discrimination.

5. Emphasize to the Arab nations that the United States will net tolerate discrimination against American firms which do business with Israel,

6. Promote efforts for the satisfactory resettlement of Arab refugees in Arab countries.

7. Take the initiative in promoting direct negotiations between Israel and the U. S.

MRS. HALPRIN TAKES ISSUE WITH BEN-GURION’S VIEW ON ZIONISM

In addressing the convention, Mrs, Samuel W. Halprin, former national president of Hadassah and acting chairman of the Jewish Agency, took issue with Mr. Ben-Gurion ‘s assertion that the Zionist movement was the “scaffolding of a building, ” and must come down, now that the State of Israel has been established. Mrs. Halprin stated:

“Mr. Ben-Curion–aware of the affection, the good will, the admiration that most Jews have for the State of Israel–believes that the need for a Zionist movement may have passed, In this view, he has neither the support of his Government nor of his party, But we, Hadassah, who are a major part of the Zionist movement, give answer of our own,

“He compares the movement to the ‘scaffolding of a building’ and suggests that, now that the building is complete the scaffolding must come down. He is in error in the analogy he draws. The Zionist movement was never the ‘scaffolding. Rather, it was an integral part of the building itself. We helped lay the foundation stone. We are a retaining wall. A builder who breaks such a wall, does so at peril to the safety of the building itself. And so we answer the word ‘no’ to Mr. Ben-Gurion, net because we have vested interests, but because we–as he–are custodians of Jewish history and responsible for Jewish survival.

“As custodians we know that the task is far from accomplished. In facing the next decade and the responsibilities which are already foreseeable, it is our fervent belief that only a movement dedicated to the totality of Jewish life firmly committed to the belief in the unity of the Jewish people, recognizing in Israel the centrality of Jewish life in its cultural and spiritual aspects, working to support Israel not as a peripheral task but as a central one, only such a movement can face responsibility and undertake the work that it imposes.

URGES STRONG CULTURAL LINK BETWEEN U. S. JEWS AND ISRAEL

“To remedy the situation, to return to the study of the Bible, to the ethics of the prophets, must be a major task in the decade that lies ahead. We must establish in this great land of ours a richly flourishing American Jewish community, which can and will maintain strong spiritual and cultural links with the Jews in Israel,” Mrs, Halprin said.

Turning to the question of aliya, Mrs. Halprin stated: “Israel has the right to ask young Jews, born in liberty, dedicated to its preservation, aware of how precisely it must be guarded, to make their contribution to the building of Israel’s democracy. Americans are trekking to all parts of the world to bring their know how and their skills to newly emerging nation. Surely the American Jew cannot do less for Israel. “

At the convention banquet tonight, Ambassador Michael Comay, head of Israel’s delegation to the United Nations, said that “the Middle East has remained a troubled spot, but the world has come to see that the tension flows from the struggle within the Arab world- -particularly from the expansionist ambitions of the Nasser regime, “

“In these conflicts,” he stressed, “Israel has a marginal position, and at least the free world recognizes that we rank high amongst the factors of stability in the area. It is during this period that our fruitful ties with other new nations have developed as they have. We are recognized less and less as simply a party to a chronic dispute which the United Nations, anyway, cannot solve, because it is soluble only by the parties themselves through direct negotiations. “