Dr. Schneier Levenberg, head of the Jewish Agency’s British Executive. advised the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Jewish Board of Deputies yesterday that the Soviet “peace offensive” was one of “deceptive reasonableness.” Dr. Levenberg, a member of the committee, said the “peace offensive” was coupled with extensive plans for large-scale aggression against Israel and was designed to delay the sale of American jets to that country. The “deceptive reasonableness” of the Soviet approach made it necessary for Israel to engage in the most flexible diplomacy, so as to appear right in addition to being right. The call for Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied territories and Israeli absorption of the Palestinian refugees was designed by the Kremlin as the only way to maintain its Influence in the Arab world, Dr. Levenberg charged. Lord Barnett Janner, chairman of the committee, warned the board not to underestimate the plight of Soviet Jews. “The developments which are taking place,” he said, “follow the kind of action taken in the days of Stalin.” He accused the Soviet secret service of “a Machiavellian plot” in its arrests and searches of Jews and Jewish homes in connection with an alleged plane hijacking by Jews in Leningrad on June 15. Lord Janner declared that “the courage of those who have sent messages abroad have stirred the Russians into action, as they now want to justify themselves against the truth which is being disseminated.”
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.
