Rabin Appeals to World Jewry for ‘decisive Response’ to Attack on Israel, Jewish People in the UN

Premier Yitzhak Rabin appealed to world Jewry last night for a “decisive response” to the “obscene” attack on Israel, the Jewish people and Judaism which he attributed to a Soviet-Arab conspiracy being carried out at the United Nations and throughout the world.

In an address to 170 Jewish diaspora leaders and a like number of Cabinet ministers, Knesset members and other prominent Israelis attending the opening of the world Jewish conference on solidarity with Israel and Zionism, Rabin declared. “We face an Ideological battle that touches upon the very ideological status of the Jew.” What has been done in the past is “no longer enough.” The coming year must be “a year of unprecedented Jewish commitment,” he told the assemblage.

The conference of world Jewish leaders was convened, according to its organizers, the government and the World Zionist Organization, not for rhetoric but to establish a concrete Jewish response to the attacks on Israel and Zionism and to increase Jewish identification with Israel and Zionist aspirations. In that context Rabin mentioned five main areas of priority.

Jewish education; pilgrimages to Israel, hopefully leading to aliya, a “more aggressively vocal” response to Israel’s enemies an increased flow of economic support and increased volunteer activities in Israel by “our finest youth” of the diaspora. (See separate story on proposals.)

IMPLICATIONS OF UN RESOLUTION

Rabin said that the recent UN anti-Zionist resolution attacked the “ideological heart of Jewish existence.” Zionism, he said, “is the modern name of ancient aspirations…the Messianic lifeblood of the Jewish people,” The UN resolution “declares war on the unique place of the Jewish people in history,” Rabin warned against underestimating the implications of the resolution. The enemies’ goal, he said, was to “intimidate” the Jews into “detaching themselves from Israel…to create an ideological barrier between the Jew and his peoplehood.”

Rabin observed that while the present gathering was not for the purpose of fund-raising, Jewish economic strength must be mobilized “as never before.” He said “It is imperative to conceive ways to intensify the flow of investment and expand the circle of Jewish economic assistance” for Israel.