Premier Golda Meir has called on world Jewry to raise $1 billion for Israel next year. It was revealed yesterday that Mrs. Meir met three weeks ago here with leaders of the United Jewish Appeal, Israel Bond Organization and European fund raising organizations to discuss Israel’s needs and the ability of world Jewry to help meet these needs. From the deliberations at that meeting, it was learned that the $1 billion goal was not unrealistic. The UJA and the IBO reportedly agreed to try to raise $400 million each and Keren Hayesod will seek to collect $200 million. In the current year a total of $500 million is expected from all sources. David Horovitz, Governor of the Bank of Israel, told delegates to the 20th anniversary IBO conference here yesterday that in the current trying times Israel has experienced a growth of the national gross product totalling 40 percent over the three year period from 1967 to 1970. Israel’s 40 percent growth, he said, should be compared with 15 percent in developing countries and 10 percent in industrialized-countries.
Mr. Horovitz noted that Israel devoted more than one-quarter of her gross national product to defense needs. At the same time, he said, since the end of the Six-Day War, 100,000 new immigrants had arrived in the country. During the same period investments in Israel rose to a new peak: $3 billion. A notable achievement, he observed, was that Israel’s industry was gradually changing its structure: investment was flowing principally towards science-based industries such as electronics and chemicals. At a previous session of the IBO conference, David Ben-Gurion was greeted with tumultuous applause by the 300 delegates. Mr. Ben-Gurion was the initiator of the first IBO conference. The former premier, who will be 84 on Oct. 16, told his audience that he welcomed the United States peace initiative, although he was not certain it would bring peace. But, he added, “Peace will come.” The speech was said to be Mr. Ben-Gurion’s first concurrence with government policy since he broke with the Labor Alignment five years ago.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
