A number of American Jewish groups called today for reversal of the United States policy on Israel and appealed to the American people to support the State of Israel in its current action against Egypt.
The American Jewish Congress urged the United States Government to take the leadership in the United Nations in pressing for immediate direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states. It further called upon the U. S. Government to stand ready to guarantee the security of Israel’s integrity and to rally United Nations support for such a guarantee.
The American Jewish Congress also called on the United Nations to “remove the underlying causes of tension” between Israel and the Arab states and to achieve a “just and lasting peace” between them through direct peace talks. In a statement issued after a hastily-summoned national administrative committee meeting, the AJC said that cease-fires, armistice arrangements, international police forces, conciliation commissions and like palliatives would be useless.
The National Council of Jewish Women, in a telegram to President Eisenhower, stated that “while British-French-Israel acceptance of the cease-fire resolution is essential, the United Nations must at the same time secure Egyptian acceptance of the Security Council’s five-year-old demands for free passage of the Suez Canal and cessation of aggression against Israel.”
In a radio speech last night over the NBC network, Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Zionist Organization of America, reviewing the Israel-Egyptian situation and its consequences for the world, said: “Today there is reason to hope and to believe that what we are witnessing, is the concluding phase of eight years of warfare. For eight years Israel has pleaded for peace. Today Israel is not pleading for peace; it is in effect, insisting upon peace.”
The Labor Zionist Assembly, spokesman for four Labor Zionist organizations in this country, asserted that “Israel had no other recourse but to defend herself.” In a protest against the Administration’s policy toward Israel, the Assembly charged that “this policy of appeasing the Arab rulers at Israel’s expense reached its climax when President Eisenhower, without giving Israel a fair hearing, rushed to condemn her for daring to ward off aggression.”
The Hapoel Hamizrachi appealed to the American people to examine the record of eight years of Israel-Arab relations before forming opinions on the Middle East crisis. It declared that Israel acted in self-defense and pointed out that Israel has always supported the United States and the West.
Brit Trumpeldor, a Revisionist youth organization, held a rally which drew 5,000 people in support of the State of Israel. The audience was urged to write the President and the newspapers in support of Israel. Speakers noted that for the past seven years Israel has suffered the “barbaric slaughter of women, children and old men.”
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