Zionist Federation Urges Israel to Seek Every Means for Settlement with Arabs

The British Zionist Federation urged the Israel government to “exploit every opportunity which might lead to an eventual political settlement” with the Arabs. It pledged unstinting moral and financial support for Israel but at the same time cautioned “certain ministers in the government to exercise greater restraint so that the facts of the Middle East conflict could be more easily explained to the public at large.” The Zionist Federation’s stand was expressed in a series of resolutions adopted yesterday at the close of its 69th annual conference. Some of the resolutions were adopted only after prolonged debate. Among these was one urging the incoming Zionist executive to take stands in the name of Zionism on various humanitarian and social causes and to identify the movement visibly with such causes, particularly anti-apartheid and race relations. Another controversial resolution condemned apartheid and all forms of racism and called on the Federation and its youth membership to oppose the 1970 tour of the South African cricket team in Britain. Opponents of the resolutions maintained that they were not in favor of apartheid or against humanitarian causes but believed that such issues were matters for individual action by members and that the Zionist Federation should confine itself to supporting Israel.

Israeli Ambassador Aharon Remez told the conference that Israel was prepared to stand fast against Arab aggression. “We still want an honorable peace settlement,” he said. “We will say that it is infinitely more important to save lives than to save face. But this seems to be unattainable as yet. Perhaps we should make it clear to our (Arab) neighbors that if they do not want peace we can hold out as long as necessary.” Dr. S. Levenberg, the Jewish Agency representative in England, said that it was “high time” for Zionists to counter on a world-wide scale the “campaign of slander and misrepresentation organized in Moscow.” He said “it would be a mistake to compare the present anti-Semitic campaign in the Soviet Union with the one organized in the last years of Stalin’s reign,” because then “Jews were not used to denounce publicly other Jews” and “today this is being done.”