Eighty Outstanding Americans Call for Direct Arab-israel Peace Talks

Eighty American leaders in science, education, literature, law, economics, art, architecture and public affairs called on the United States Government today to initiate within the United Nations, and outside the world organization, actions to induce the Arab states to enter into direct peace negotiations with Israel. Sixteen of the signatories to the statement are Nobel Laureates. One of the latter, Dr. I.I. Rabi, University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944, transmitted the appeal today to President Johnson on behalf of all the signatories.

Calling Israel “a great human and creative source,” the statement declared that, to preserve and encourage Israel, “is surely a major responsibility of the civilized world.” “Enabled to develop in peace,” the signatories stated, “Israel’s contribution to the region and to the world may rival in fruitfulness and enduring quality that of the ancient state in the days of the Bible. Once peace settlements have been reached, it becomes possible to tackle the formidable human and development problems of the region, which have resisted solution until now.”

“In fact and in principle,” the statement declared, “Israel’s security is bound up with our own. Without peace settlements entered into by Israel and each of the warring states, we are only storing up fuel for new outbreaks, with no assurance that a new encounter can be contained or restricted either to conventional weapons or to regional states. In the delimited atmosphere of a direct confrontation between the parties, insulated against the competitions and pressures of major or minor states, hard reality may prove more effective counsel and impetus for a settlement than the public debates of the past 20 years.”

Five of the signatories had initiated the appeal, stating its purpose as “to support our Government and others seeking a settlement of the conflict in the Middle East, which is realistic and capable of stabilizing the area after 20 years and three wars.” The five, who made the statement public today, were: Dr. Louis F. Fieser, professor of chemistry at Harvard University; Dr. Maurice Goldhaber, a member of the National Academy of Sciences; Dr. Robert Hofstadter, professor of physics at Stanford University and 1961 Nobel Prize winner; Dr. Rabi; and Dr. David Rittenberg, chairman of the biochemistry department at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.