Middle East issues were prominent at the 10th Biennial Joint Program Institute of the National Council of Jewish Women attended by 500 delegates from 36 states at the Shoreham Americana Hotel here this week. The opening dinner was addressed by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Blum, who castigated the anti-Israel speech of Cuban President Fidel Castro to the UN General Assembly last week.
The NCJW also issued a statement deploring former Texas Governor John Connally’s Middle East plan that would trade Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories for an assured supply of Arab oil at stable prices.
Blum condemned Castro’s comparison of Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians with the treatment of Jews by the Nazis during World War 11. He called the juxtaposition “an outrageous desecration against the victims of the Holocaust” and observed that the absence of a public outcry against it showed to what degree attitudes toward Israel have eroded under the impact of Arab propaganda.
Blum also explained why Israel will never deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization. He called it an invention by which the Arabs hope to achieve the destruction of Israel. If the goal of the PLO should change, so would the situation in the Middle East, Blum said. But he doubted that would happen for then the PLO would not be the PLO.
STATEMENT ON CONNALLY
In a reaction to Connally’s speech last week at the Washington Press Club, the NCJW said: “He called for Israeli territorial withdrawal before calling for an end to terrorism. And, most significantly, he mistakenly linked U.S. oil shortages with American support of Israel, a view not shared by this government or by responsible authorities in the field. If there were no Israel, the OPEC (Organization of Pet{SPAN}###leum{/SPAN} Exporting Countries) nations would still control the flow of oil to the West on their own terms. We cannot help wondering if Connally’s extensive business dealings with Saudi Arabia and a number of Arab interest groups have both colored and flowed his judgement of the true situation in the Middle East.”
The Institute delegation went to the White House for a special reception hosted by Rosalynn Carter. NCJW president Shirley I. Leviton presented the First Lady with an award for her efforts in the field of voluntarism. Mrs. Carter said, in her response, that she looks upon the NCJW “as a model for international voluntarism and involvement.” Yesterday, the 500 NCJW delegates held a vigil at the Soviet Embassy for the release of Prisoner of Conscience Ida Nudel.
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