Zionist leaders who are attending the ZOA convention here today warmly welcomed the President’s letter to Ibn Saud.
Expressing deep appreciation of the “President’s forthright statement,” Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, ZOA president, said: “I am very pleased to read the message sent by President Truman to Ibn Saud of Arabia. One is at a loss to understand Ibn Saud’s interference in the matter of Palestine. Jewish rights to Palestine, guaranteed by the mandate, are not subject to the review of Saudi Arabia any more than the affairs of Saudi Arabia are subject to the review of the Jewish Agency of Palestine. This desert chief of a backward and feudal state should be asked to turn his attention to his own country to devote himself to the improvement of the conditions of his impoverished, illiterate and exploited people which he has kept in subjection. He should not worry about the Jews who have brought to Palestine not only for themselves but for the Arabs there prosperity, progress and education.”
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman of the political committee of the ZOA, voicing gratification over the President’s statement, expressed the hope that it was the beginning of a firmer stand on the part of the government and suggested that the President’s letter might have been more effective if it had been based on the Jewish legal position in Palestine rather than on humanitarian grounds.
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