The anniversaries of the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the death of Dr. Chaim Weizmann and the death of Mrs. Blanche Dugdale, niece of Lord Balfour, were observed here last night at a public meeting where leading spokesmen of both major parties discussed the new trend of Anglo-Israeli relations.
Both Lord Boothby, Conservative, and Anthony Greenwood, deputy leader of the Labor Party, stressed the need for Western guarantees of Israel’s borders and independence as the only sure road to peace and stability in the Middle East. Lord Boothby called Israel “the greatest miracle of modern times and perhaps of all times.” He warned that as long as the Arab states “think they can destroy the Jewish State, peace will not come to the Middle East.”
Mr. Greenwood asserted that “Israel’s battle for survival cannot be fought by Israel alone,” and that the Jewish State “needs the help of all the democratic states and of world Jewry to bring about peace.” He said that the Labor Party was not anti-Arab, but that It abhorred the “politics which determine their cruel and unjust behavior towards Israel.”
Attacking the Anthony Eden proposal for “rectification” of Israel’s borders as a path toward a final settlement, Mr. Greenwood insisted that the British Government must continue its support of “democratic Israel” to eliminate the possibility of armed conflict in the Middle East. “The Suez campaign was forced on Israel by its isolation,” he said.
Mr. Greenwood stressed the similarities between Britain’s and Israel’s democratic institutions and hailed the “freedom of the Arab minority” in Israel.
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.
