Leaders of the Republican and Democratic Parties have been called upon by a conference of several hundred Zionist leaders here to safeguard the traditional American bi-partisan policy of friendship and support for Israel.
At the same time, the Zionist leaders adopted a resolution expressing “increased concern of the harmful effects of the Administration’s current attitude” on this policy. The resolution asked the leaders of the Republican and Democratic Parties to urge the Administration “to withhold arms shipments to the Arab states, to concern itself actively with maintaining Israel’s security as an integral part of American policy in the Middle East, and to induce the Arab states to enter into non-aggression agreements with Israel.”
The resolution was adopted at a special conference of Zionist representatives from the Metropolitan New York area convened by the Zionist Organization of America at the Hotel Vanderbilt. Mortimer May, president of the ZOA, who was the principal speaker, stressed that “American support of Zionist aspirations, since 1948, of the State of Israel has always been bi-partisan.” He added that “this country’s outstanding statesmen, Republicans and Democrats alike, have through the years worked together to create the traditional American policy of friendship for Israel.”
Charging that “recent actions of our State Department, especially the decision to send arms to the Arab states, have endangered this historic American policy towards Israel,” Mr. May said: “It is difficult to conceive of a bi-partisan approach based on the current attitude of the State Department. Clearly, therefore, the Administration must act immediately to preserve not only the traditional American policy, but also the bi-partisan approach which produced it.”
VERBAL ASSURANCES BY DULLES CONSIDERED UNSATISFACTORY
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman of the national ZOA executive committee, who is recovering from an operation at Mount Sinai Hospital, sent a statement to the conference emphasizing that since the end of August the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated still further. “Instead of reconsidering its plans to furnish arms to the Arab states, the Administration has permitted the drift towards disaster in the Middle East to continue unchecked,” he asserted.
“It is both fair and timely to subject the acts of the Administration to the acid test of sincerity,” Dr. Neumann declared. “If there is any substance left in the vaunted policy of ‘impartiality’ toward Israel and the Arab states, let Secretary Dulles give that policy concrete expression now. Nor can we be satisfied with verbal assurances wrapped in high-flown verbiage. What we want to see is a definite reversal of the incendiary policy of arming the Arab states and imperiling Israel’s security.”
Other speakers at the conference included Harry Torczyner and Harold P. Manson. Mr. Torczyner, who is chairman of the ZOA Commission on Israel and the Middle East, declared that “the time has come for impartiality to replace ambivalence.” He maintained that “American enlightened self-interest requires the integration of Israel into an Eastern Mediterranean defense system. Israeli interest dictates its alignment with the United States.”
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.
