The American Jewish Congress National Women’s Division today called on the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to “repudiate in unambiguous and unequivocal terms” a statement by the WILPF New York Metropolitan Branch opposing Israel’s request for $2,5 million in U.S. aid.
In a letter to the WILPF made public today, Leona Chanin, president of the AJ Congress Women’s Division, declared: “Those who formulated this statement presumptuously exploit the name of women who have been opposed to American intervention in Cambodia.
“They deny and distort the position of those of us who remain wholehearted and unswerving in support of the peace movement and at the same time perceive critical and decisive differences, in terms of America’s legitimate national interests, between support of autocratic governments of Southeast Asia and support of the free and democratic government of the State of Israel.
“The lessons of history are clear. If we have gained nothing else from past events, we should have learned that the way to maintain peace in the Middle East is to allow Israel the means to defend herself and thus deter the aggressive use of force against her people and her borders.”
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