Democratic Congressman Leonard Farbstein of New York today asked the chairman of the Near East Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to invite United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson “or the official in the Department of State most responsible” for U.S. Middle Eastern foreign policy, to testify before the House unit on “the motivations” of the United States-sponsored resolution in the UN Security Council, censuring Israel, earlier this month.
Rep. Farbstein, a member of the subcommittee, said in a letter to Subcommittee Chairman L. H. Fountain, North Carolina Democrat, that he was making his request because he, “along with other of my colleagues have become increasingly disturbed by the conduct of our affairs in the United Nations” with respect to the Middle East. The New Yorker said U.S. votes in the United Nations during the past four months appear “on the face” to be “in harmony with the views of Israel’s sworn enemies.”
In addition to U.S. sponsorship of the censure resolution, the Congressman cited the American UN delegation’s efforts in the General Assembly, last December, to defeat a 16-nation proposal for direct Israel-Arab peace talks which, he said, “caused widespread concern in Congress.”
Rep. Farbstein pointed out that the U.S. vote was cast against the resolution “despite repeated pronouncements by our State Department, reaffirming our support for direct talks among parties to all disputes.” Similarly, he said, U.S. sponsorship of the censure resolution “again failed to go to the root of the difficulties–the refusal of the Arabs to negotiate and make peace with Israel.”
“One wonders if these two recent developments are not part of a pattern, suggesting an emerging new policy in the Middle East, “Mr. Farbstein stated in his letter. “If such a new policy has been adopted, it cannot serve the cause of peace in the Middle East.” The New Yorker also stated that his request for the appearance of Mr. Stevenson, or a State Department official, before the Near East Subcommittee was in keeping with Congress’ “right and obligation to know how the foreign affairs of this Nation are carried out.”
The request comes some two weeks after Mr. Farbstein’s introduction of a resolution in the House, calling on the State Department to furnish “full and complete information with respect to the reasons underlying the United States sponsorship and active support” of the UN censure vote against Israel.
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.
