Zionist National Parley Urges Govt. to Vindicate Palestine Policy, Take Lead at U.N.

Hundreds of Zionist leaders from all parts of the country today asked the American Government “to vindicate its policy” on Palestine by instructing its delegate at the U.N. Security Council to take the lead in supporting the request for sending an international army to Palestine to implement the partition decision.

Assembled for a two-day emergency conference here, the approximately 700 delegates adopted a resolution asking the United States to invoke sanction against the Arab governments promoting aggression against Palestine and defying the United Nations. The resolution also requested the government to lift its embargo on arms to the Middle East for the Jewish defense forces in Palestine–which alone are fighting for the implementation of the U.N. partition decision.

Convoked by the American Zionist Emergency Council, the conference will end tomorrow, on the eve of an expected decision by the State Department which must instruct its representative at the U.N. Security Council on his position when the Palestine security situation is discussed at Lake Success some time this week. Secretary of State George C. Marshall indicated during the week-end that the final U.S. decision on the implementation of the partition plan will be made after the Palestine Commission submits its security report to the Security Council.

Emphasizing that they are meeting here “to collect a note from the American Government duly signed on November 29” when the U.S, delegation at the U.N. voted in favor of Palestine partition, most of the speakers at the conference pointed out that certain elements in Washington who oppose the implementation of the partition decision have gained great strength in the Administration. However, they pointed out that they are determined to fight any action on the part of the government which would undermine U.N. efforts to implement partition.

NEUMANN CHARGES WELL-FINANCED CAMPAIGN SEEKS TO REVERSE U.N. DECISION

This line of action will be put into practice tomorrow by the delegates when they visit their Congressmen and Senators to impress them with the fact that the American Government is “honor-bound” to help in the implementation of the partition decision to which it has pledged itself.

Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Zionist organization of America, who was one of the principal speakers, charged that a well-financed political campaign has been launched from a central source for drastic revision or complete reversal of the U.N. decision. He said that the move to bring about the reversal involved an unsuccessful attempt to secure a negative bi-partisan policy on Palestine. “Leaders take Palestine from politics, but we believe this maneuver miscarried and there will be no bi-partisan policy except the traditional American one.”

Secretary of Defense James Forrestal was cited by Neumann as responsible “more than anyone else” for the argument that American national interest required reversal of the U.N. decision. Neumann declared that it is “dangerous to leave the defense of the country In the hands of a Secretary of Defense who bases his policy on oil ###r the atomic bomb, and shows a lack of appreciation of the “bases of American national interest.”

Z.O.A. HEAD WARNS OF BRITISH PLANS TO SABOTAGE U.N. DECISION

Declaring that the action of the Security Council revolves around the attitude of the United States, Neumann said that “unless the American delegate in the Council takes the lead, things are likely to drift there” as they have drifted in Washington. He reported that there is no intention here of reversing the arms embargo “for the time being.” Terming the embargo “an American unilateral decision,” Neumann said that “the United States made the decision on its own and can therefore unmake it” without waiting for recommendations from the Security Council.

Neumann warned that British sabotage of the U.N. decision and the organized Arab invasion of Palestine countenanced by Britain, constitute the first step in the destruction of the moral authority and life of the U.N. “Current British policy aims to leave the country in a state of chaos and expose it to all the horrors of an avoidable war he said, urging withdrawal of American aid to Britain “until it mends its ways.”

(Reports from London today stated that informed quarters believe that Britain’s latest tactic in opposing partition will be to dissuade the small powers in the U.N. from participating in the organization of an international force. The reported offer this week-end of the British Government to place troops at the disposal of the U.N. Governor of the international city of Jerusalem was seen as a maneuver to place Britain in a strong position to enlarge the international zone through use of her troops if the expected large-scale violence follows termination of the Mandate.)

SILVER CALLS FRIENDS OF PARTITION PLAN TO STAND BY IT

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, head of the American section of the Jewish Agency executive, told the conference that “as the time for implementing the U.N. decision on Palestine draws near, the powerful forces which have always been opposed to it, inside and outside government circles, have mobilized for a last determined attack.” He warned the delegates that efforts are being made to reopen the entire debate on the Palestine issue. “All the arguments which were fully aired during the long deliberations at the U.N. before the partition decision was taken are being put forward again as new reasons for revision or abandonment of the plan. “Utterly misleading pleas of so-called moderates for some new compromise are being made as if the partition plan did not in itself represent the supreme decisive compromise,” he stated.

Dr. Silver said partition was a compromise found acceptable by the U.N. as “fair and reasonable,” with the procedure for implementation defined. “The enemies of the plan have rallied to defeat it, he said. “It now remains to see whether the friends of the plan and those who voted for it will yield to intimidation and threat or will rally to maintain the authority of the U.N. and insure its implementation by acts and not words.”

Other speakers included Reps, Franklin J Maloney, Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and John W. McCormack, Minority Leader of the House, Rabbi Irving Miller, chairman of the Z.O.A. Administrative Council, who presided, and various representatives of all Zionist factions. Both Congressmen urged the government to support the speedy establishment of a Jewish militia and the dispatching of an international force for Jerusalem and the remainder of Palestine.