The “essential kinship” of Israel and the Christian world was stressed today by Israel Ambassador Abba Eban in an address before the student body and faculty of Notre Dame University. This was the first time that an official representative of the State of Israel addressed a major Roman Catholic audience in the United States.
“An understanding of the spirit of the Christian world ranks high among Israel’s chief aspirations,” Mr. Ehan said. “We are fully aware that many causes and assets sacred to Christianity lie within our control, and demand our most vigilant reverence. This consideration has led us constantly in recent years to proclaim our readiness to place under international influence the Holy Places in Jerusalem which are the cradle and inspiration of the Christian faith.”
The Israel Ambassador reviewed the considerations which have caused the Governments of the United States and of Israel to cooperate within the United Nations on behalf of solutions which respect both the sovereignty and secular independence of Jerusalem’s population, and the rights of the Christian world to see its Holy Places kept immune from turbulence. “I am satisfied that this attitude is now shared by a majority of the members of the United Nations,” he declared.
SEES CATHOLIC WORLD INTERESTED IN ISRAEL’S DEVELOPMENT
Expressing satisfaction with the fact that he had been invited to speak before “this Catholic sanctuary,” Mr. Eban said that he considers the invitation a reflection of the conviction of the audience that “the unfolding of Israel’s new career as a nation is a matter of moment and concern to the Christian world.”
“The great issue in this generation is drawn, not between Christianity and Judaism, or between Israel and the Christian nations,” he stated. “The frontier lies rather between those who assert and those who deny the supremacy of faith and of freedom. You and we occupy different areas of tradition, experience and outlook; but we occupy them on the same side of that fateful demarcation. Our differences are not insignificant, and-we should not be disposed to obscure them. It may well be that those elements of our personality which are separate and distinctive are precisely the most creative elements in our contribution to the common cause.
“The rise of Israel,” he continued, “is a victory of the human spirit, a triumph of international integrity, a burden removed from the universal conscience, the addition of a new voice to the symphony of human freedom. This is then a victory for the Christian struggle as well as being a direct salvation for the Jewish people.”
Mr. Eban noted that the Biblical struggle of the Jewish people for freedom had inspired and consoled many subsequent movements, of national independence, including that of the United States. When Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were consulted on the emblem of the future American union they suggested that the seal of the United States of America should represent the children of Israel fleeing across the parted waters of the Dead Sea on their way to freedom.
In many material fields Israel can never compete with the might and influence of the great continental or imperial powers, Mr. Eban pointed out. “The only domain in which we are free to soar to the highest peaks available to any nation are those of scientific, cultural and spiritual progress. However pressing are Israel’s preoccupations with physical security and economic welfare, the challenge of cultural achievement cannot be set aside.”
The Ambassador expressed appreciation of the “warm praise” uttered by Msgr. Antonio Vergani, representative of the Latin Patriarch in Israel, by the Very Rev. Father Brunet, and by visiting cardinals and prelates, at the efforts of the Israel Government to facilitate the movement of travellers and pilgrims and repairing war damages inflicted on some of the buildings and property of the Catholic Church in Israel.
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