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Israel Must Be Prepared to Repulse Attack from Any Quarter, Ben Gurion Warns

May 1, 1951
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Israel must be prepared to repulse attacks from any quarter because the only guarantee Israel can have for its neutrality is the respect which belligerent nations have for its sovereignty and internal freedom, Premier David Ben Gurion declared here last night at a Mapai Party conference called to consider its program in the forthcoming national elections.

Mr. Ben Gurion paid tribute to Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and Henry Montor for their guidance of the Israeli $500,000,000 bond issue in the United States which, he said, appears to be on the “threshold of success.” He castigated the General Zionists for their original opposition to the bond drive.

The Premier scored both the General Zionists and the Mapam for failing to participate in the government, taking particular pains to express his criticism of the Hashomer Hatzair wing of the left Socialist party which last week gained majority control of the Mapam. He charged that the Hashomer Hatzair group receives its “directives” from a foreign power. He referred to a “fortress in some foreign country where a self-appointed Divinity pretends to decide what is good and what is bad for the Israeli nation while 2,000,000 Jews there are prevented from expressing freely their aspirations.”

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