“The arrangement would have been technical in nature and compensation was asked only with regard to the additional expenditure which the cabling and distribution of the Executive’s news statements would have caused the J.T.A.
INSISTED ON COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE
“If I had not insisted on maintaining our own service from Palestine and agreed to carrying nothing but news items offered by the Executive, it would have constituted acceptance of control or censorship. The J.T.A. would not have been responsible for any but its own service, and just because I insisted on the continuation of our own service and rejected control of the J.T.A. news, no agreement was reached.
“It is also untrue that in my proposals I declared myself willing to appoint a Jerusalem correspondent with the consent of the Executive. Nothing to this effect was contained in my written proposals nor in my conversations with Mr. Ben-Gurion and Mr. Shertok or at the time I met the entire Executive.
CHARGES MALICIOUS DISTORTION OF FACT
“It is evident that the New Palestine wishes to confuse the public by issuing such misleading statements. These statements published in the New Palestine are gross, deliberate and malicious distortions of the facts. If the J.T.A. had maintained during its existence such a low standard of veracity, it could hardly have continued for seventeen years.
“The statement, for example, claims that the decision to establish the new service was taken in the spring of 1934. As a matter of fact, this service was already operating at the beginning of 1934, and in the official report issued in February, 1934, by the organization department of the Executive in London, reference was made to the fact that the service had been established.
J. T. A. STATEMENT REPLY TO EXECUTIVE
“The New Palestine also quotes a statement by the Executive in Jerusalem in reply to the statement published in the Jewish Daily Bulletin with regard to these developments. As a matter of fact the statement issued by the J.T.A. was a reply to the statement issued by the Executive on December 18, or more than three weeks ago. It seems that the statement as published in the New Palestine has been embellished by some additional vituperative remarks. For example, the statement as issued on December 18 in Jerusalem did not contain the following sentence: ‘Other insinuations contained in the New York Jewish Daily Bulletin the Executive regards as beneath contempt.’
“It would be interesting to establish whether the New Palestine did not take liberties with the statement of the Executive, and I wonder whether they could produce the cablegram showing that this sentence was included in the original statement of the Executive.
NEW AGENCY SERVES ONLY HISTADRUTH
“The New Palestine also claims that the new service serves no party. The most superficial perusal of the reports issued by the new service permits no doubt of its partisan character. The activities of parties opposed to the Histadruth are completely ignored in the service, and at no time during its year’s existence has this service carried even one statement emanating from an anti-Histadruth Zionist leader. Its obvious tendency is to glorify the present Histadruth – controlled Executive, quite apart from the fact that all other vital aspects of Jewish life are not dealt with.
“The statement in the New Palestine denies that any member of the Executive ever suggested that the J.T.A. be placed under the control of the Executive. The suggestion had already been made in the beginning of this year by Mr. Berl Locker, Histadruth member of the Executive, who is at present in New York. He repeated the suggestion only a few weeks ago when speaking with me and with Mr. Joseph Leftwich, editor of the London Bulletin of the J.T.A.
SUGGESTED CONTROL OF PALESTINE J. T. A.
“During the first talk which I had with Mr. Ben-Gurion and Mr. Shertok, the suggestion was made by them that the Palestine part of the J.T.A. be placed under the control of the Executive. The following day Mr. Ben-Gurion suggested that the Histadruth propaganda service be the representative of the J.T.A. in Palestine, and that the J.T.A. should not maintain any correspondent in Palestine. In the conversation between Mr. Ben-Gurion, myself and Mr. Braude, a well-known South African Zionist leader, Mr. Ben-Gurion stated for the first time that no control of the J.T.A. was desired.
“However, it is clear that by establishing the new service, the intention is to replace the J.T.A. by an agency which would be under the complete control of the Histadruth dominated Executive. In essence it would amount to the same.
ASCRIBES PERSONAL MOTIVES TO LIPSKY
“The editorial published in the same issue of the New Palestine disclaims that the decision to establish the new service was taken by the Histadruth members of the Executive, and mentions that among those also present had been Dr. Gruenbaum, Dr. Ruppin, Professor Brodetsky and Mr. Louis Lipsky. Dr. Gruenbaum, Dr. Ruppin and Professor Brodetsky in their talks with me indicated a desire that some understanding be reached and they were not the moving spirit in the establishment of the new service.
“Mr. Lipsky, who owes his election to the Executive to Histadruth influence, has his own personal motives. When the J.T.A. received a cable that the manager of the Palestine branch of his insurance company had resigned in protest against the draining of all funds of the Palestine company in order to pay debts of the New York company, frantic appeals were made to the J.T.A. to withhold the report from publication by Mr. David Freiberger, lawyer and intimate friend of Mr. Lipsky. On the evening of that very same day, Mr. Lipsky began to hatch his plot for establishing a rival system, as can be proven by me.
SEEKS TO PROTECT VESTED INTERESTS
“Mr. Lipsky and certain other Zionist leaders do not desire any agency not fully controlled by them. It might bring out facts which might shock the public by revealing conditions which would destroy the position of leadership they hold today. It might reveal the high-handedness, the partisan favoritism and brutal machine policies which characterize the Histadruth Executive, a revelation that would shake the confidence of the public. To protect themselves against such possibilities and to safeguard vested party interests are their real motives.
“The many deliberate falsehoods contained in the statement which appeared in the New Palestine are characteristic of the unscrupulous tactics, worthy only of Tammany Hall politicians, which are employed by the editor of the New Palestine.
REFUTES CHARGES OF ZIONIST EDITOR
“He claims in his editorial that the J.T.A. in its reporting stimulated and incited dissension. Friction between the parties in the Zionist movement had reached such unheard of proportions that Jews were attacking others, freely resorting to physical violence leading to actual blood-shed. This situation reached such dangerous heights that the British authorities urged the Zionist leaders to put their house in order. In giving a truthful record and by making the Jewish public aware of such conditions, the J.T.A. enabled Jewish opinion to exercise a moderating and sane influence on a leadership which was carried away by fanaticism and extreme partisan spirit. But to hide the true state of affairs from the public, to make it believe that everything is ideal within the Zionist organization and Palestine is the real aim of the Histadruth leaders.
LIPSKY INSPIRED PARTY STRIFE
“The criticism that the J.T.A. sowed dissension is made by the very same Mr. Lipsky who has been responsible more than anybody else for creating dissension in the Zionist life of this country. He was mainly responsible for the split within the Zionist movement in 1922, preventing a truly solidified organization, and has been chiefly instrumental in the loss of prestige and strength of the Zionist movement, bringing it down to a position of insignificance and decay and reducing the influence of the American Zionist organization at the World Zionist Congress to almost naught.
“Lacking sincerity, conviction and consistency, inspired only by the desire to maintain his position, suiting his views to opportunistic considerations, a master of intrigue qualifying him for the position of a Grand Vizier at any oriental court, Mr. Lipsky has turned the Zionist Organization of America into a hotbed of cabal and an annex of the Histadruth being at their beck and call for any service they might ask of him.
NON-ZIONISTS NOT LISTED AS AT CONFERENCE
“It is interesting that among those whom the New Palestine mentions as present when the decision was taken to establish a new service, there is not a single name of a non-Zionist member of the Executive. It confirms my previous statement that the decision was taken by the Histadruth leaders and those who are intimately associated with or dependent upon them The Zionist leaders proceeded likewise in the matter of the loan where £500,000 of property was mortgaged without consulting the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency or its non-Zionist officers.
“The Histadruth leaders are imposing upon the Jewish people their own decisions without the pretense even of consultation with those who are carrying the responsibility with them.
SERVICE SUDDENLY BECOMES PRIVATE
The New Palestine mentions that the new service is a private company limited by shares. This step has been taken only now, after the service has been in existence a year. It is remarkable that the main argument against the J.T.A. was that it is a private enterprise. Having discovered that an official and partisan propaganda agency meets with opposition, the Histadruth propaganda service is being transformed into a private company, while the J.T.A. is at the same time criticized for being one.
“The sudden change throws light on the hypocrisy of the arguments used against the J.T.A. Mr. Lipsky and his henchmen are masters in the art of camouflage. Anxious to gain the public confidence, their new service has proceeded on more cautious lines in the United States but those who have watched the service given by the same agency to the Jewish press in Poland fo### almost a year cannot doubt their utter partisanship. This was also pointed out by the Chwila, a prominent Zionist daily in Poland, which was quoted in the Jewish Daily Bulletin of Jan. 2.
FORMER J. T. A. WRITER SERVES NEW SERVICE
“The New Palestine affrms that Mr. Julian Meltzer is the Jerusalem cable correspondent and editor of the English mail bulletin of the new service. This is the same Mr. Meltzer who represented the J.T.A. until he was taken {SPAN}###{/SPAN} by the new service, and the {SPAN}pu###{/SPAN} is asked to believe that as long {SPAN}###{/SPAN} he served the J.T.A. the {SPAN}rep###{/SPAN} of the J.T.A. from Palestine {SPAN}we##{/SPAN} sensational, inaccurate and {SPAN}wha##{/SPAN} not.
“The editorial in the New Palestine quotes a sentence from a ### port of the National Council ### Jewish Federations and Welfa### Funds, deliberately omitting oth### passages in the very same repo### in which it is pointed out that ### late Louis Marshall proposed in resolution that the Committee ### Sponsors should in no way inte### fere with the work of the J.T.A. because he felt that the agen### while meriting public support, b### cause of the service it was rende##ing, must remain free and ind### pendent. The late Louis Marsh### and other friends of the Agen### were motivated by the consideration that the J.T.A. should not ### made a tool in the hands of po### ticians.
“I am confident that the pub### will not permit itself to be co### fused and misled by this delib### ate attempt made by the His### druth leaders and their henchm### and will judge the J.T.A. by t### many years of service it has given to the Jewish public,” Mr. Landau declared.
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.
