A resolution pledging to “stand by Israel, regardless of what the future may bring,” was adopted here last night at the closing session of the three-day Mobilization Conference of the Jewish National Fund of America held at the Biltmore Hotel. More than 1,000 people, including several hundred delegates, attended the session.
Other resolutions adopted called for the support of a three-point JNF program for the coming year, including 20 new defense settlements on the borders of Israel; the planting of the Jerusalem Forest, numbering 1,000,000 trees, ringing the Holy City, and the large-scale development of the Northern area of Israel around the city of Safed, over-looking Lebanon and Syria borders. Resolutions were also adopted calling for the observance of Jewish National Fund Month throughout November and part of December and the widespread use of the JNF as the beneficiary of bequests and wills to link the names of the testators with the land of Israel.
Dr. Harris J. Levine, JNF president, addressing the audience, said: “We stand by Israel because it is our deepest conviction that Israel’s course is the right course, the only one that any nation could pursue under similar circumstances. We stand by Israel because we believe that Israel’s cause is the cause of democracy of the free world and of this country of ours, the United States of America. And finally, we stand by Israel because Israel is near and dear to us, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone.”
Joseph Weitz, Israel leader and special emissary of the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem, said: “Israel’s mission lies not in conquest, but in reclaiming and restoring devastated lands to their ancient fertility. When the clash of arms is stilled, it will be found that Israel has been the greatest civilizing force in the whole of the Middle East, bringing the fruits of the world’s progress to many people who have been denied peace and freedom for generations.”
J.N.F. ROLE IN CHANGING THE FACE OF ISRAEL DESCRIBED
Mr. Weitz, describing the role of the Jewish National Fund in changing the face of the land of Israel, explained that the cultivated land in Israel is about all taken up, and that in order to make room for the new immigrants, new areas of cultivable land must be literally wrested from the mountains and hills. About 100,000 dunams, that is about 25,000 acres, were already reclaimed, a process of destoning and terracing the mountainsides, but 1,000,000 more dunams, or a quarter of a million of acres must likewise be reclaimed from the mountains and the wilderness which occupy large portions of the State of Israel.
Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the American Jewish Congress, said that in view of Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, “she is justified in demanding 1) that the integrity of her territory remain safe and undiminished within its historic boundaries; 2) that an end be put to border incursions and violence by its neighbors; 3) the cessation of economic boycott by its neighbors; 4) free access to waterways and unhampered passage through the Suez-Canal for Israel and Israel-bound shipping; 5) immediate peace talks between Israel and the Arab states with a view to reaching a total, not fragmentary solution.”
Bartley C. Crum, noted attorney and former member of the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry in Palestine, called upon the United States Government to guarantee Israel’s borders as the best possible guarantee for peace and prosperity in the Middle East.”
Mendel N. Fisher, executive director of JNF, in reviewing the activities of the Jewish National Fund said he noted a great upsurge in Jewish popular interest through the United States in the work of the JNF. He declared that preparations have been made to utilize the JNF Month for the purpose of heightening popular interest and increasing contributions to the Jewish National Fund. The program for the JNF, he said, “calls for a concentrated effort for a wider use of the JNF traditional methods of collection in all Jewish communities, particularly the distribution of the JNF Blue-White Box and the sale of trees to be planted in Israel.
The resolution of solidarity with Israel adopted by the conference calls on “all the Jews of the United States to rally around Israel in this crucial hour, to mobilize the resources, material and moral, of American Jewry behind the State of Israel, to align themselves on the side of the Jewish State, through the Jewish National Fund, to the end that the cause of peace and freedom of which Israel is the foremost representative in the Middle East, may triumph over its adversaries.” It concludes by declaring “before the world and the Jewish people we shall not rest until the security of Israel is fully assured to the highest advantage of humanity, our own country, the United States, and the State of Israel.
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