The Moscow Radio is taking issue with Israel’s Premier David Ben Gurion over the statement by the latter that Israel aims to have 3, 000, 000 Jewish inhabitants. In a broadcast which is transmitted over various frequencies and in different languages, the Moscow radio terms this goal as “provocative and demagogic. ” The text of the broadcast, as monitored here, reads:
“The Israeli press continues to publish untrue reports concerning a so-called mass Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe to Israel. What are the aims of this dirty campaign? The Israel Government is trying to decide a number of other questions through the publication of false rumors concerning a mass Jewish emigration from the countries of Eastern Europe. It is known that the Israel Government is encountering great difficulties at the present time. Unemployment is spreading in the country, and there is a crisis in the food production.
“Lately, the Israel Government has requested the American Government to offer some agricultural products because of insufficient foodstuffs in the country. The Israel Minister of Finance stated in the Knesset that the Israelis will be compelled to contribute to long term loans. Golda Meir, now in America, is trying to increase American financial aid to Israel.
“In the light of these facts, it becomes clear that Ben Gurion’s recent allegations that Israel now enjoys glorious circumstances which enable her to accept three million Jews aim at provocative and purely demagogic goals. In the present circumstances, the Israeli authorities cannot even guarantee bread, work or housing for their own inhabitants–a matter known full well to the Americans, who actually do not want to render unconditional aid even to Israel, What have they got to do with the Israeli issue?
“One cannot read without being overwhelmed with regret and astonishment the article in the Egyptian magazine Rose al-Yusuf of February 23. The same thing may be said about the article published in A1-Akhbar on February 25. The strange thing is that these articles were published after Moscow Radio and the official Soviet paper Izvestia had categorically denied these provocative rumors concerning the alleged Jewish emigration. “
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