Zionist backs Palestine state
| Washington
Nahum Goldmann, one of the leading figures of Zionism, predicts that the Palestinians will get their own state and declares that he favors such a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The former president of the World Jewish Congress also predicts that Western European nations will play a growing role in bringing this solution about.
In an interview, Dr. Goldmann said he meets regularly with Palestinians close to Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has received messages from him, and is convinced that Mr. Arafat will accept a two- state solution that would allow for coexistence with Israel.
Despite opposition from many Israelis, Dr. Goldmann said he is willing to meet with Mr. Arafat and thinks such a meeting will take place.He said the idea of such a meeting was first suggested three years ago by King Hassan of Morocco but that his involvement with the world Jewish Congress at that point made it impossible. Declaring that he now is a "free man," he said it was up to Mr. Arafat to decide on the time and place of a meeting.
A life-long supporter of the State of Israel who had close relationships with its founders, Dr. Goldmann described Mr. Arafat as a "realistic man." The PLO, he said, recognizes that it is not militarily capable of liquidating Israel.
But he said that as a result of the Camp David agreements and the lack of a solution to the Palestinian problem, most of the Arab nations are growing cooler toward the United States. Dr. Goldmann advocates a return to a Geneva-type peace conference that would include all the Arab parties to the Middle East conflict. He said a number of Western European countries are "very dissatisfied" with current American policy and thus will not leave the search for a solution to the Americans alone.
Dr. Goldmann predicted that President Sadar of Egypt, meanwhile will not be able to remain forever isolated from the other Arabs.
If President Carter is re-elected, he said, the US President will "have to force Israel to make concessions -- on territory and on some solution to the Palestinian problem."
