Israel’s Population Will Exceed 3, 000, 000 in Next Decade, Eban Says

The next decade will see Israel’s population exceed 3,000,000, Abba Eban, Israel Ambassador to the U.S.; predicted today at a special meeting of Hadassah. He expressed the hope that the next decade will also bring about peace between Israel and its neighbors, but pointed out that “that gift does not lie within our hands alone, ” However, he indicated, whether there is peace or not, Israel will continue to flourish.

Ambassador Eban was given a Citation of Merit by Hadassah “in tribute to the man and the statesman, and in recognition of the understanding and cooperation between the United States and Israel which his efforts have inspired.” The presentation was made by Mrs. Benjamin Gottesman, national treasurer of Hadassah, In addition to Mr. Eban, the meeting was addressed by Dr. Miriam Freund, national president of Hadassah, and Mrs. Samuel W. Halprin, acting chairman of the American Section of the Jewish Agency,

Mrs. Halprin, representing the Jewish Agency, declared that “all through the past nine years, the solid core of friendship for Israel on the part of the American people has remained firm, regardless of the variants in the American Government’s attitude toward the Jewish State.” She urged the U.S. to support Israel on the Suez and Tiran issues, “Equally important, however, would be an official State Department pronouncement that the United States stands for peace in the Middle East and rejects the theory of Egyptian belligerence, and that the United States is determined to use its best efforts to bring the representatives of Israel and the Arab states to the conference table to work out a peace for the Middle East,” he said.