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Dulzin Says Israel Has Presented the Palestinian Problem ‘poorly’ to World Public Opinion

December 17, 1975
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Leon Dulzin, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives, said here Sunday that Israel has always “tragically” presented the Palestinian problem “poorly” to world public opinion.

Speaking to a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization of America, Dulzin said Israel should have pointed out that historic Palestine includes both sides of the Jordan River. Therefore “all the people in Jordan are Palestinians including King Hussein.”

However, Dulzin said that the real issue in the Middle East was the Palestinians but the refused of the Arab states to recognize the legitimate right of the State of Israel to exist. He predicted there would not be another step-by-step negotiations process and said Israel will only negotiate now for a real peace.

Dulzin a leader of the Liberal Party, one of the parties comprising the Liberal Party, one of the parties comprising the Likud opposition, said he supports Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s recent statement that there will be no Palestinian state on the West Bank, that Israel’s security border will remain the Jordan River and that Israel will never negotiate with the Palestine Liberation. Organization. But he questioned how long Rabin will adhere to this position in the wake of opposition within the Labor Party.

SEES NEED FOR NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

“The present government is the weakest in Israel’s history,” Dulzin charged, He said not only do the various Cabinet members make contradictory statements but individual Ministers make contradictory statements on different days.

Dulzin said the time has come for a government of national unity which includes Likud, But he said he doubted that Rabin had the courage to support a government of national unity or to hold a new election.

Dulzin, who is seeking to be elected as chairman of the WZO/Jewish Agency Executives, accused Rabin of trying to dictate the selection of the next chairman by picking the Labor Party’s candidate for the post. While he did not mention the candidate’s name, if was an apparent allusion to Haifa Mayor Yosef Almogi. Dulzin said that while the WZO and the Jewish Agency must cooperate with the government, they are not part of the government. He predicted that when the 110 members of the Zionist Action Committee meet next month to elect the WZO chairman, the eventual winner will be elected by only six to seven votes.

Dulzin praised the recent world Jewish “summit” held in Jerusalem, noting that for the first time the Zionist organizations were treated as equal to the government of Israel. But he said he was disappointed that it had not taken concrete action for a propaganda counter-attack to the anti-Zionist campaign,

PRAISES UJA, AMERICAN JEWRY

In a brief interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency shortly after he spoke to the ZOA, Dulzin praised the United Jewish Appeal National Conference which he attended over the weekend “For the first time attended a UJA conference that was openly and outspokenly a Zionist conference,” he said.

He said the UJA delegates had expressed solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people and he believed they would not fail in reaching their 1976 goal of $600 million, Dulzin said he was also impressed in visits around the country with the emergence of young Jewish leaders who are in their thirties and forties. However, Dulzin said he would like to see American Jewry dedicate a greater part of its funds to Jewish education. He said for Zionists the two greatest “mitzvot” are Jewish education and aliya.

During the ZOA meeting. Dr. Joseph P. Sternstein, ZOA president, attacked the “inability of Israel to articulate its position effectively.” He said “were Israel to present a coherent tough stance, the Israeli position and view would be strengthened in Washington.”

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