Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion will go to the United States next week to receive an honorary doctorate from Brandeis University, it was officially announced here today.
The Prime Minister’s office issued a communique which said that the Prime Minister had accepted an invitation to receive the degree of Doctor of Laws. The ceremony will take place on the Brandeis University campus at Waltham, Mass., on March 9. Mr. Ben-Gurion will speak on “Science and Ethics–The Contributions of Greece, India and Israel.”
Authoritative sources here emphasized that the sole purpose of the Prime Minister’s visit was to receive the doctorate. It was indicated, also, that the Prime Minister’s acceptance of the inivitation at this time was indicative of the fact that Mr. Ben-Gurion did not expect trouble with the Arab countries in the immediate future.
The same sources insisted that there were no plans for the Prime Minister to meet President Eisenhower or Secretary of State Christian Herter. The invitation was received one month ago and the Cabinet approved the visit today as required by law. The Prime Minister, accompanied by Mrs. Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Navon, his private secretary, will fly to Boston and return directly to Israel. Finance Minister Levi Eshkol will be acting Prime Minister.
The timing of the announcement was believed related to the present Middle East situation and it was presumed that the Prime Minister waited until the past weekend before deciding that his absence from Israel would be possible. The announcement today was believed to be timed to deflate the crisis atmosphere of the past few weeks both here and abroad.
The Prime Minister’s most recent visit to the United States was in May 1951 in connection with the first Israel Bond drive.
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