U.S. Asked Not to Help Arabs to Set Up “ring of “iron” Around Israel

The charge that the “great democracies pledged to Israel’s support are being drawn into that Arab conspiracy to draw an iron ring about Israel “was voiced here last night by Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman of the executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America and member of the Jewish Agency executive, addressing a ZOA meeting at the Statler Hotel.

“At times it looks as if our own government is lending its influence unwittingly to this conspiracy,” he said. He warned Washington that the “Middle East cannot be defended against Communist expansion merely by a vast system of ‘maginot’ lines in modern form.”

Jacques Torczyner, national chairman of the ZOA world Zionist affairs committee, in his address said that “Israel’s enemies are not in error when they direct their heaviest bombardments at the Zionist movement. The Arab League and its propagandists know that we are determined to frustrate their schemes. The American Friends of the Middle East also have no doubts on this score.”

The meeting unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the “Egyptian Government for its inhuman act in hastily executing the unjust death sentence imposed on two Jews by Egypt’s military court.” At the same time, the resolution commended the U.S. Government for its efforts to avert the tragedy in Egypt and its dire consequences in the tense Middle East. In paying no heed to our government’s interventions, Egypt has given further evidence of its contempt for American opinion and democratic concepts. We urge our Government to consider this behavior carefully in relation to future American policy in the Middle East,” the resolution concluded.