“If Israel were to subside into the ocean, what would the world energy position be today?” This question was asked by Israeli Ambassador Oviada Soffer, member of Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations, at the Chanukah banquet of the Jewish National Fund, His answer was that it would be exactly the same as it is because the scarcity was not born in the Middle East, The real question, Soffer told the several hundred persons attending the banquet, “is not what Europe and America are going to do about Israeli Independence, but what they are going to do about the independence of Europe and America from oil blackmail by the Arab.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.