Z.O.A. Hits Egyptian Embassy for Interfering in U.S. Internal Affairs

The Egyptian Embassy in Washington was charged today with “flagrant violation of diplomatic proprieties” for its action in issuing a public statement last Thursday, in which the Embassy accused American Zionists of trying to “discredit” the U.S. Government and defended the Administration’s current policy of furnishing arms to Arab states as “impartial.”

Addressing a meeting of the national executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America here, Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman of that body, termed the Egyptian Embassy’s action “a public attack against a large body of Americans who are currently exercising their rights, as citizens, in criticizing certain policies of their government which they regard as mistaken and harmful to America’s true interests,” The Zionist leader called upon the U.S. Government to “inform the Egyptian Embassy that it will not tolerate such unwarranted interference in the democratic life of our country.” Dr. Neumann’s statement was endorsed by the entire executive.

Noting that the executive’s meeting today is being held on the eve of elections “when partisan feeling runs high,” Dr. Neumann underscored the need of clarifying the American Zionist position “beyond the possibility of misinterpretation.” Dr. Neumann, who is also a member of the American section of the Jewish Agency executive, said:

“In recent months we have publicly criticized the policy of arming the Arab states despite their threatening posture toward Israel. If our protests have been voiced during this pre-election period the coincidence and ‘timing’ were not of our making. We were impelled to react to ill-timed acts or pronouncements of the State Department, conceived in error and fraught with grave consequences. “