Mizrachi 28th Annual Convention Urges Truman to Resist Intrigues Against Israel

A resolution calling on President Truman to stand firm against “vicious intrigues” that would subvert the Administration’s policy on Israel was adopted here today at the 28th annual convention of the Mizrachi Organization of America. The three-day parley ends tomorrow.

The delegates also expressed satisfaction with the unity of the Haganah and all other military groups in Israel, but expressed concern with the fact that the independence and territorial integrity of that nation are still threatened. The convention appealed to Truman, in the interests of world peace, to lift the embargo on arms shipments to Israel if the Arabs resume the war after the current four-week truce ends. Other measures the President was asked to take in the event that the war begins again would include extension of lend-lease aid to Israel and the direction of vigorous efforts to induce the U.N. Security Council to “take forthright and concerted measures against those states guilty of aggression.”

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, addressing the convention said that, despite the truce, Britain had hot surrendered her war against Israel and that she would use this breathing spell to “pressure for the kind of solution which she has always wanted in Palestine–a pro-Arab and pro-British solution. ” The British, he asserted, will make every effort in Washington to gain collaboration for a solution which might bring cantonization on Palestine or establish an Israel without the Negev. In the event that hostilities are renewed, he stressed, American Jews must be prepared to urge their government to lift the arms embargo and aid the new Jewish state.

Aubrey S. Eban, Israeli representative at Lake Success, last night told the convention that his government is prepared to negotiate with the Arabs for peace–but only on the basis of complete equality and sovereignty. If, however, the aggressors chose war, the Jews will not return those parts of Palestine which they wrest from the invaders by force, he warned. The only basis on which the Jews and Arabs can lay the foundations for a permanent peaceful relationship in the U.N. Charter’s insistence on the mutual respect of all nations for each other’s sovereignty, Eban added.