Gen. Uzzi Narkiss told the 54th annual convention of Hadassah, the American women’s Zionist organization, here tonight that Israel did not expect a quick peace with the Arab states but warned them that Israel would survive until such a time when they “are ready to sit down with us — even if it takes a generation.”
Gen. Narkiss, who is now a member of the Jewish Agency executive, in charge of immigration, commanded the Israeli forces which liberated East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. He said that strategically, Israel had never been in a better position in that It holds the Golan Heights of Syria, the West Bank and the Sinai Peninsula. He said “never before have we had it so good but we are paying a high price for it.”
Finance Minister Zeev Sharef of Israel, agreed with Gen. Narkiss that Israel might have to live with war for many years to come. He told the delegates that “we are ready for peace and are ready to work out peace arrangements.” The question he said was whether the Arabs were ready to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Mrs. Max Schenk, of New York, Hadassah treasurer, was elected president for the coming year, succeeding Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson who was named honorary president for life. In her acceptance speech Mrs. Schenk declared that “the present mood of violence and rebellion is not peculiar to America.” She said the entire world is “caught up in convulsions of change.”
The convention, in its concluding session, adopted a budget of approximately $10 million for its activities in Israel and the United States during the coming year. Of this total, $6 million is for the Hadassah medical organization in Israel, $2.3 million for Youth Aliyah, $700,000 for the Jewish National Fund, $650,000 for Hadassah vocational education and $200,000 for youth activities.
The delegates approved resolutions dealing with violence, the right to dissent, foreign aid, Polish anti-Semitism, the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union and in Arab countries, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Israel’s search for peace, and the aims of the Zionist movement, including the promotion of Aliyah. One of the resolutions upheld the right “of a free people to peaceful dissent and protest” as a “pillar of democracy.” The delegates also asked that gun control laws be extended to the sale and registration of rifles and shotguns.
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.
