Maurice Edelmen, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, expressed the hope tonight that British Premier Harold Wilson might find it possible on his forthcoming visit to Moscow to obtain Soviet support for a peace initiative in the Middle East.
He told the Council of the AJA that while world attention was being focussed on the war in South Viet Nam, the arms race between Israel and the Arab states “again gathers momentum.” He asserted that because Israel was obliged to consider countermeasures, the hope of creating a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East was fading.
Referring to Mr. Wilson’s Moscow visit, the AJA chairman said that to prevent an Arab-Israeli conflict, with the grave possibility of escalation, the Great Powers must make a concerted effort to bring the conflicting parties to the conference table.
He assailed planned West German cuts in indemnification to victims of Nazism and said the victims were being made to shoulder an economic burden for which they had no responsibility. He added that while it was impossible to compel West Germany to meet its obligations promptly and in full, there was surely a moral obligation to ameliorate the hardships of victims who have had to wait 20 to 30 years for a modicum of redress for the injuries they suffered.
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.
