Khrushchev Says Time Will Come when Jews May Be Able to Leave Russia

Nikita Khrushchev, Communist boss” of the Soviet Union, admitted that it is very difficult for a Jew to leave Russia if he wants to settle in Israel, or even to visit the Jewish State. “But,” he added, “the time will come when everyone who wants to go will be able to do so.”

This statement was made by the leader of the Soviet Communist Party to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt when she interviewed him during her visit to Moscow, Mrs. Roosevelt, reporting her talk with Mr. Khrushchev in the New York Post today, says that he seemed very anxious to have her understand ‘that a Communist could not be anti-Semitic. He emphasized the fact that his own son, who was killed in the war, had been married to a Jew and claimed that Jews in the Soviet Union were given all opportunities for education and employment on all levels.

Mr. Khrushchev reminded Mrs. Roosevelt that the Soviets had voted for the creation of the State of Israel but added that at present he felt that Israel must change its policies and be less aggressive. When Mrs. Roosevelt suggested that the Soviet Union had given the arms to Syria which had been one of the reasons for the sense of insecurity in Israel and therefore for their show of aggression, he flared up and said there were 80 million Arabs and about one million Israelis, so “if Israel continued her present policy she will be destroyed.”

Who attacked Egypt? he asked. Wasn’t it Great Britain, France and Israel? Mrs. Roosevelt answered that he would have to separate the attitude of Israel from that of Britain and France. Israel had been told for a year by the Egyptians that when they were ready and fully armed by the Soviets, the Egyptians would drive the Israelis into the sea. Thus the action of the Israelis was in the nature of self-defense, because they could not wait until the build-up against them was completed. Proof of the build-up had been found in the Sinai desert when the Israelis had captured over 550 million worth of military materiel provided by the Soviets or their satellites.

Mrs. Roosevelt said that it seemed to her the Soviet Union could help if it was willing to work with the U. S. to achieve an understanding between Israel and the Arab countries. Israel was willing to sit down with Arab representatives and try to work out their difficulties, but the Arabs always refused, she argued. Mr. Khrushchev” answered that he knew very well the Arabs had made mistakes “but we must remember that the Soviet Union was for a class not for a state,” Israel consisted of ail sorts of classes; the Soviets were for the Socialists in Israel, but not for the state? I presume when Mr. Khrushchev spoke of ‘Socialists’ here, he meant Communists,” Mrs. Roosevelt explains.