“situation in Washington is Bad,” Dr. Neumann Reports; Warne Against Panic

The situation in Washington is bad, but we should not lose our heads and give way to panic, “Dr. Emanuel Neumann reported today upon his return from the Capital.

Speaking at a press conference, the ZOA president said that during his visit in Washington he gained the impression that “the most influential advocate of a Virtual reversal of the United States policy with regard to Palestine la Secretary of Defense Forrestal.” He emphasized that Secretary Forrestal “has never “been friendly towards the cause of Zionism and he is now pressing forward very strongly.”

In his report, Dr. Neumann said that influential circles in Washington seem to have accepted the inevitability that if the present developments in Palestine continue, Britain might be asked to stay on and continue to occupy the country, the U.N. Implementation Commission would get nowhere, and nothing would happen. “I pointed out that this was a very naive conception; that the chances were that the security situation in Palestine would deteriorate, and whereas now they would have to deal only with a small blaze, in three or four months they will have a full-scale conflagration, which would take much more effort to deal with,” he declared.

“A great deal of confusion has “been created in the minds of people in Washington regarding the consequences of the partition plan and the possible consequences of the shipping of American arms to Palestine,” Dr. Neumann said. “The most fantastic conclusions are drawn by Congressmen who believe, or were made to believe, that a mere modification of the embargo or permission for arms to reach the Haganah would inevitably result in war,” the Z.O.A. president reported. “How was that to come about and who was to deplore war upon us Syria, Lebanon or any other country–no one knew.

“Another argument was that this was tied up with the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan involved the industrial rehabilitation of European nations. Such rehabilitation was dependent upon fuel oil which would have to come from Arab sources; this could be brought into Europe only if a pipeline were built; and somewhere this pipeline would be interrupted–and in that way the partition plan would stymie the Marshall Plan,” he said.

U.N. CHARGED WITH SETTING UP JEWS AS “TARGETS FOR GENOCIDE”

Louis Bromfield, co-chairman of the American League for a Free Palestine, today called upon President Truman to issue an executive order permitting the sale of arms for defense to Palestinian Jews.

Bromfield also accused the United Nations of ”having virtually set up the Hebrew People as targets for genocide” by virtue of the partition plan and “now appears to be abandoning them.” The Security Council has only a few weeks to act, he said, “since it is now definite that a date early this spring has been set for the massacre of the 800,000 Hebrews in Palestine and the million more residing in Arabian countries.”