Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D.NY) said today she did not believe “the American people can be bullied into rejecting” Israel because it is the only country in the Middle East and one of the few in the world that shares American values of democracy and social justice. However, she expressed concern that the Administration was sending arms to Arab countries and was following a foreign policy of “realpolitik” rather than of moral justice.
Ms. Holtzman spoke at the annual Mid-Winter Conference of the National Committee for Labor Israel at the New York Hilton Hotel, Delegates to the conference presented $1.5 million toward the 1975 goal of $5 million for the Israel Histadrut Campaign in support of a broad program of health, educational and social welfare services rendered by the Israel labor federation to workers and new immigrants.
Saying that Israel and the Histadrut were able to achieve solutions to social problems through a spirit of cooperation among its people, Ms. Holtzman called for this same kind of spirit of cooperation in the United States to solve its vast problems. She noted that both Israel and the Histadrut were the realization of a dream and declared that not all the oil in the Arab countries could make their deserts bloom without a similar dream.
The Congresswoman said the Arab rulers were afraid of social justice because it would mean sharing oil wealth with their people, and afraid of human values because it would mean they could no longer use the Palestinians as “kamikaze” fodder against Israel.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
