Warning of Arab intentions to maneuver the expulsion of Israel from the United Nations at the next General Assembly, Kalman Sultanik, executive vice-president of the World Confederation of United Zionists and member of the World Zionist Organization Executive, called today for prompt and vigorous action by Jewish communities through-out the world to alert the governments of their respective countries to the dangers of such a move “which would lead to the irreversible degeneration of the United Nations.”
He also urged, in a statement prepared for delivery in London at a meeting of the executive board of the British General Zionists, the postponement of elections to the forthcoming World Zionist Congress to conserve the resources and energies of Zionists to meet the urgent problems arising out of the serious emergency facing Israel and the Zionist movement.
Sultanik’s statement was given to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York where he stopped off on his way to London en route to Israel. The British General Zionists’ at their meeting were scheduled to discuss vital issues affecting Israel and the Zionist movement.
In his address, the Zionist leader cautioned that “we should not be caught unaware with respect to Arab intentions in the wake of their success in securing the surrender of so many countries including those of the Third World and other newly emerged developing lands to their pressure to vote for the resolution equating Zionism with racism.”
He added that all indications point to the certainty of their continuing pressure tactics to have the matter of Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations placed on the agenda of the next United Nations Assembly meeting. It is now the task of every Jew wherever he resides. outside of Israel, to persuade their governments to instruct their UN representatives accordingly.
REASONS FOR POSTPONEMENT OUTLINED
In calling for the postponement of elections to the forthcoming World Zionist Congress scheduled to be held in December. Sultanik emphasized that
Moreover, he continued, “such elections would cause divisiveness among Zionists and sap human resources at the very time when the present emergency situation calls for solidarity and unified action in accordance with the decisions and manifesto issued by the Jerusalem solidarity conference.”
Sultanik focussed his opposition to elections on the fact that the greatest majority of Zionists are situated in the United States and that the holding of elections to the Zionist Congress would be both inconceivable and inadvisable amidst the turmoil of a Presidential election year. He felt that the representation to the World Zionist Congress be based on the same composition as the last Congress in 1972 and assume the character of a Solidarity Congress, in keeping with the precedent set during the convening of the Congress in 1957.
Sultanik added that postponement is essential to afford Yosef Almogi, newly elected chairman of the World Zionist Organization Executive, time and an opportunity to give undivided attention to the problems facing the Zionist movement.
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