American-israel Treaty of Friendship Lauded in United States and Britain

The United States-Israel treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation, signed at Washington last Friday is likely to have a “quietening effect” on a considerable body of business opinion in Israel and on “certain American Zionists now attending the World Zionist Congress” who had accused Premier David Ben Gurion and his Labor Party of “frightening away American capital with threats of Socialism in our times,” the Times of London said.

(The New York Times in an editorial on the treaty pointed out that the pact is a sort of mutual “most-favored nation” arrangement, guaranteeing non-discriminatory treatment of shipping and commerce and smoothing the way for further private American investment in Israeli enterprises. “Israel’s exports to the United States last year came to $8,500,000 (double the figure for 1949) and amounted to almost one-quarter of Israel’s total exports; while American exports to Israel exceeded $100,000,000, accounting for nearly two-fifths of Israel’s imports. The new treaty can be expected to encourage these commercial and financial relationships,” the editorial said.)

The role which American Jews played in helping to bring about the establishment of Israel was lauded in an editorial published in the Times of London, commenting on the current World Zionist Congress session in Jerusalem. The editorial said: “In making the new State of Israel possible, American Jewry played the lead among the communities of the Diaspora; its spokesmen in a very real sense were the government-in-exile’ of the Jewish nation; and it looks now for special recognition in Israel.

“The debt is large. The Jews of America had a striking success in winning support from Washington. Their tireless energy brought to birth the United Nations resolution commencing the Jewish State in Palestine. Their political pressure secured the instant recognition of Israel by the Government of the United States. They gave financial and material support to Israel’s struggle against the Arabs; they mobilized world opinion so deftly that even now the cause of the Arabs finds few supporters among the Western peoples,” the editorial states.