A warning that the position of Israel is lens secure today than it was before the establishment of the Jewish state was sounded here today by Yitzhak Ben Aharon, Mapam member of the Israel Parliament. The deputy, who is a member of the Israel Parliamentary delegation currently visiting London, spoke at the conference of representatives of Jewish organizations in the British Commonwealth countries which is now taking place here.
He pointed out that the situation in the Middle East had deteriorated because of Big Power politics. Relations between Israel and the Arab states, he said, had worsened. “If there is a future war, we must be prepared for it,” he pointed out. He also warned that any renewal of fighting would “not be repeated along the old lines.”
Mr. Ben Aharon recalled that Israel’s independence was won only at “the cost of heavy sacrifice.” He said that it was a miracle that a Jewish state was established in “our time,” but the “state is only a phase in the history of our people.” He insisted that the state is “the obligation of the Jewish people,” calling on them to “fill up its empty spaces” by a supreme effort to speed up mass immigration.
At the same time, he stressed that the role of the Zionists had not ended with the establishment of the Jewish state. “On the contrary,” he asserted, “Zionism remains most important ideologically, religiously and morally for every Jew in the world.”
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.
