Assistant Secretary of State Henry A. Byroade was hailed, in a letter sent him today by Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, for emphasizing “an important principle underlying the proper relationship of the State of Israel to Jews throughout the world.”
In an address before the Dayton World Affairs Council last Friday, Mr. Byroade, chief of the State Department’s section on Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs, had declared: “To the Israelis I say that you should come to truly look upon yourselves as a Middle Eastern state – and see your own future in that context rather than as a headquarters or nucleus so to speak of world-wide groupings of people of particular religious faith who must have special rights within and obligations to the Israeli state.”
In his letter, Mr. Rosenwald welcomed this statement as a “clear and proper distinction between the religion of Jews and the nationalism of Israel.” In making it, Mr. Byroade, according to Mr. Rosenwald, “reiterated a principle which has historic precedent in previous discussions of the Palestine problem.”
Mr. Rosenwald indicated it was his opinion and that of the Council that “national and international recognition of a clear separation of the natural sovereignty of Israel, its problems and destiny from the religion of millions of citizens of other nations who profess Judaism will help bring peace to the Middle East and clarify the status of Jews who are citizens of countries other than Israel.”
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