Jews outside Israel are unable to give up their right to state their attitude on developments in Israel or to give up their right of persuasion by democratic means because decisions taken in Israel affect their lives. Rabbi Irving Miller, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said here last night.
The New Yorker made his first public appearance here at a meeting at Zionist House and discussed questions of relationship between the State of Israel and the Zionist movement. He said the State might prefer that outside Jews be indifferent to events in the State and give help only. This, he said, was not only impossible logically but did not accord with the interests of the State. Israel, he declared, belongs not only to Israelis but to the entire Jewish nation.
It was true, he said, that the Israelis had the right to decide their life but each decision had its positive or negative implication on the Jews of the Diaspora and therefore they were not able to give up their right to state their attitude or try persuasion by democratic means.
Rabbi Miller declared that discontinuance of intimate ties between the State and the Zionist movement would mean the breaking of the State’s most reliable and sole ally.
Dr. Peretz Bernstein, leader of the Israel General Zionists, and Dr. Emanuel Neumann, member of the Jewish Agency Executive, who also addressed the meeting, re-asserted the readiness of the General Zionists to join the government coalition since the situation called for national unity. They said, however, that the condition for General Zionist entrance into the coalition must be facilities to enable improvement in the country’s difficult situation.
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