The United States Government stands committed to implementation of the partition decision of the United Nations, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver declared tonight addressing a dinner which was given in his honor at the Hotel Aster on the eve of his departure for Palestine.
“The United Nations plan for the division of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state is now definitely a part of American foreign policy and should be as aggressively and determinedly advanced as other major policies of our government,” Dr. Silver said. “Our government should assist the U.N. in every way possible and should employ all of its diplematic machinery and influence to expedite the matter. Delay is dangerous. Defeat will be catastrophic.”
Emphasizing that “the Zionist movement has no orientation either to the West or to the East,” the Zionist leader bitterly criticized persons spreading propaganda in Washington as well as in the American press aiming at destroying American-Soviet cooperation on Palestine and at preventing the implementation of the partition decision. “If we need to define our orientation, it is definitely and unmistakably to the United Nations,” he said. “We are happy that our problem received a solution by international agreement in which the East and the West harmoniously cooperated. We hope it will remain so in the future.”
Dr. Silver expressed the opinion that it would be highly desirable to have an international force accompany the U.N. Implementation Commission to Palestine. “But,” he added, “whether an international force is sent to Palestine or not, it is immediately imperative that the Jewish people of Palestine shall be enabled forthwith to defend themselves. They have the manpower. They need arms. Surely those states–and foremost among them the United States–which voted to create a Jewish state must feel honor-bound and duty-bound to see that the citizens of that state in the making are properly protected against murderous assaults.” He expressed confidence that the United Nations will not permit itself to become the victim of “insolent intimidation” of Arab hoodlums.
Principal speakers at the dinner included Mayor Israel Rokach of Tel Aviv, Rep. Irving M. Ives, Sen. Joseph C. O’Mahoney, Herbert Bayard Swope, Dr. Emanuel Neumann, Dr. Israel Goldstein and Rabbi Meir Berlin.
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