The hope that Israel places on the visit this week to the Jewish State of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Mutual Security Director Harold Stassen was emphasized here tonight by Israel Ambassador Abba Eban addressing a dinner in his honor sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York.
Declaring that “Israel has watched recent developments of American policy in the Middle East with interest and satisfaction,” Mr. Eban said: “We hope that the visit of the American Secretary of State and director of Mutual Security to Israel will reveal to them something of our country’s pioneering spirit, its pursuit of high ends and ambitious goals, its dedication to ancient moral values and modern scientific truth, its concern for Jewish pride and destiny, its insatiable thirst for freedom and its spontaneous sympathy for institutions of free government in every land.”
The Israel Ambassador pointed out that his government has seen “not the slightest disposition in Washington to attach diminished importance to the American-Israel partnership a partnership of mutual interest and of democratic ideals held in common.”
Regretting the fact that there is no perceptible movement in the Arab world towards the establishment of normal relations with Israel, Ambassador Eban stated: “If the world is to move forward towards an improved atmosphere, then governments in our area which refuse to negotiate a peace settlement with their neighbor will find themselves increasingly out of accord with the prevailing international atmosphere of our times. There are no issues between Israel and the Arab world which free negotiation could not solve, just as there are no issues which can be solved without free negotiation.
“It is deplorable to find past resolutions of the United Nations, whose fulfillment the Arab governments prevented by force, now being retrospectively invoked as reasons for not establishing peace, “Mr. Eban continued. “By this melancholy paradox an organization dedicated to peace between states is having its records exploited as a tactical obstacle to a peace settlement.
“If Israel with its small area and poor resources could make new homes for 750,000 destitute immigrants, could not the vast Arab East, far more richly endowed, provide security and homes for an equal number of its own kinsmen if only the will existed?” he asked.
W. Averell Harriman, who recently retired as Director of Mutual Security after holding a series of high diplomatic posts and serving in the Cabinet, expressed at the dinner his pleasure that the Eisenhower Administration is continuing the program of grants-in-aid to Israel initiated by the Truman Administration.
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.
