Sen. Robert F. Kennedy proposed tonight that the United Nations establish a special fund for assistance to the Arabs in the territories occupied by Israel last June, and that the United States “do all that is necessary to dispel” from Arab minds “the false belief that Israel can be overthrown or conquered.” He spoke at a dinner where 300 Bronx communal and business leaders formally launched the borough’s 1968 drive on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York. Gifts of more than $300,000 to the Israel Emergency Fund and the general UJA campaign were announced.
Sen. Kennedy enunciated further principles to guide American policy in the Middle East. These, he said, should include an insistence on a “final, lasting peace settlement,” which, he said, means “direct and meaningful negotiations between the Arab world and Israel.” Further, he said, there should be recognition that America’s best role would be to assist all the nations of the Middle East in their peaceful development. He said that the United States must avoid the mistake of maintaining a rigid policy in the face of future changes in Arab policy, encouraging, by word and deed the conditions for peace in the Middle East.
Brig. Gen. Avraham Yoffe, who commanded Israel’s armored forces in the Six-Day War, told the assembly that the bitter experience of the 19 years prior to the June war had unified the people of Israel in the determination to hold the present cease-fire lines until a peace settlement guaranteeing Israel’s security was negotiated.”
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.
