Israel Government Interested in Jewish Agency’s Prestige, Eshkol Says

Israel has the right to demand assistance and reinforcement from the Jews of the world because it has “bestowed a great deal of dignity and honor on the Jewish people,” Levi Eshkol, Finance Minister of Israel, declared today during the debate in the Zionist Actions Committee. He spoke in his capacity as member of the Jewish Agency executive.

Mr. Eshkol denied charges that the Israel Government is not cooperating with the Jewish Agency, Noting that the government was supplying 50,000,000 Israeli pounds towards settlement work undertaken by the Agency, he asked: “Doesn’t this prove that the government is concerned with Jewish Agency prestige? The government could have said,” he continued, ” ‘if you have no funds don’t undertake settlement work.'”

He pointed out that Israel’s lot is hard and will remain so for years to come because the country is surrounded by enemies. Israel must judge the Jewish people in proportion to its meeting Israel’s needs, he asserted. He pointed out that the Israel Government has many expenditures, like the defense budget, for which it received no financial support from the Zionist movement.

To criticism that Israel had not created a favorable atmosphere for capital investments, he replied that the matter was debatable. Then he asked his critics, “where is the climate to encourage immigration, which you should create?”

Leon Dultzin, member of the Jewish Agency’s executive, told the Actions Committee that assistance must be provided for professionals and middle class elements with small supplies of capital in order to attract them as immigrants to the Jewish State. He asserted that thousands of Latin American families would like to come to Israel but cannot because of conditions.