Resolutions calling upon President Truman to accord Israel de jure recognition, urging the withholding of assistance to the Irgun, reaffirming the social ideals of the Pittsburgh Platform of 1918 and commending the Zionist plank in the Republican Party platform were among a series adopted today at the 51st annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America.
The resolution which asks for full recognition of Israel expresses the gratitude of the Zionists to the President for “the speedy recognition which he accorded the Provisional Government of Israel and for the message which he addressed to the present convention.” The resolution calls upon him to use his efforts to grant speedy admission of Israel to the United Nations and to extend to the new state economic aid.
The resolution on the Irgun Zvai Leumi condemns the recent attempt of the dissident group to “conduct separatist military activities in defiance of the authority of the Provisional Government of Israel and adds “that all aid to Irgun or any similar group in the United States or in Palestine shall be discouraged.” The delegates commended the Republican Party “for writing into its platform a plank favoring full recognition and economic aid to Israel.” Another resolution expresses the gratitude of the Zionists of America to the Republican Presidential nominee, Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, for the message which he addressed to the present convention.
Touching the negotiations of the U.N. mediator in Palestine, the convention declared that “it is deeply concerned over reports indicating that the mediator has seen fit to make suggestions tending to compromise the independence of Israel, to infringe upon its territorial integrity, and to place the city of Jerusalem under Arab control.” The convention deplores “this departure by the mediator from his clearly defined mandate.” Another resolution requests the President “to suspend all forms of economic aid to any foreign government which resorts to the use of armed force against Israel or to any government which ships or releases war material to the aggressors.”
DR. NEUMANN AND ENTIRE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION RE-ELECTED FOR SECOND TERM
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, incumbent president of the Z.O.A., was re-elected to serve a second term. At the same time, the entire slate headedly him was also reelected.
The “Committee for Progressive Zionism” today issued a statement denying that the “walkout” by its members during last night’s election session indicated any disagreement with the present administration on fundamental matters. “The Committee desires to mate it absolutely clear to the public that on the basic political objectives of the Zionist movement, and on its unflinching support to the state of Israel’s stand before the United Nations.” The statement said: “There is not, nor has there ever been, any disagreement between the Committee for Progressive Zionism and the present administration of the Z.O.A.”
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairmen of the American section of the Jewish Agency, addressing the 2,000 delegates last night, strongly denounced the British Foreign Office for its policy in the present Palestine peace talks. British Foreign Secretary Earnest Bevin, Dr. Silver charged, is using the current truce “to arrive at the closest approximation to the kind of a solution which he has always aimed at — a pro-Arab and pro-British solution.”
Predicting that the coming year would be a very critical one, Dr. Silver said: “It is clear that for the success of our movement, the role of the American Government will be a decisive one. It is clear, therefore, that the Zionists of America must remain fully alerted and mobilized.” He also charged that the U.N. Security Council failed to use the machinery available to it under the Charter to restore law and order in Palestine.
Dr. James G. McDonald, newly-appointed U.S. representative to Israel, told a Jewish National Fund session of the parley that the program of land purchases in the Jewish state “must continue until the full program of resettlement and rebuilding has been achieved. Land,” he said, “is essential not only to production but also to the defense of Israel.”
Judge Morris Rothenberg, J.N.F. president, reported that since the Fund’s formation in 1910, more than $85,000,000 has been remitted to Palestine for the purchase of land. He predicted that at least 20 percent of the 1,500,000 immigrants who will enter Israel in the next decade, will settle on the land. J.N.F. executive director Mendel Fisher said that so far In I949 the Fund has collected, through Its traditional methods, slightly more than $2,250,000, as compared with $1,875,000 received during the same period last year.
Other speakers at the convention were Dr. Neumann; Henry Morgenthau, Jr., general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; Senator Claude D. Pepper; Dr. Israel Goldstein; and Herman L. Weisman. A message from President Truman to the convention said that Israel “must find its rightful place in the United Nations and ways must be found to encourage friendship and close economic cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors.”
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