Z.O.A. Leaders Urge Progressive Party in Israel to Rejoin General Zionist Movement

Hailing the General Zionist Party’s victories in the municipal elections in Israel last week, topranking leaders of the Zionist Organization of America, speaking at a Z.O.A. National Administrative Committee meeting here today, urged the Progressive Party to rejoin the Israel General Zionist movement. They also stressed the need for coalition in Israel between the Mapai and the General Zionists.

Benjamin Browdy, president of the Z.O.A., reported to the meeting on the cordial relations between the Zionist Organization and the White House as well as the good relations between the organization and the Government of Israel. Besides reporting on his visits to the White House and to Israel, Mr. Browdy outlined the organization’s activities in this country in behalf of the Jewish state.

At the same time, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, in a message to the General Zionist Party in Israel, called upon the Progressive Party “to reunite itself with the Organization of General Zionists.” The message congratulated the General Zionists on their “extraordinary achievement in the municipal elections.”

Predicting that the results of the elections “are certain to have a salutary effect both in Israel and within the world Zionist movement,” Dr. Silver said in his message that these results “reinforde the position which was recently taken by the national executive of the Zionist Organization of America when it reasserted its close and fraternal relations with the organization of General Zionists in Israel and expressed the hope that it would fulfill its role as the great center party in the country.”

Dr. Emanuel Neumann, former Z.O.A. president, and another speaker at today’s meeting termed the General Zionists’ vote in the elections as “the most important political development in Israel since the parliamentary elections “two years ago. The citizens of Israel have shown remarkable maturity. By their action they have firmly established the General Zionist as the great liberal Center Party and have given it a clear mandate to strengthen the state by steering a middle course between extremes of right and left,” he added.