Representatives of more than two dozen countries joined with White House and State Department officials today in toasting Israel’s 31st anniversary as guests of Israeli Ambassador and Mrs. Ephraim Evron at the Israel Embassy. The guests included representatives of Swaziland, the Ivory Coast, most of the West European countries and several from Latin America, including Argentina.
Representing the White House were Presidential counselor Robert Lipshutz, Special Ambassador to the Middle East Robert Strauss, and special Presidential assistants Edward Sanders and Gerald Rafshoon. From the State Department came Special Ambassador Alfred Atherton and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs Harold Saunders. Others among the 350 guests included Lane Kirklqnd, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and Joseph Sisco, president of the American University.
Earlier in the day, ground was broken for a new Israeli chancery, the first specifically designed to serve as the administrative offices of Israel’s Ambassador and ministers and their staffs in Washington. The $4.5 million building is expected to be completed within 15 months.
With the flags of Israel, the United States and the District of Columbia flying under sunny skies, the symbolic first shovels of dirt were lifted by Israeli Ambassador Ephraim Evron, Undersecretary of State David Newsom, Washington Mayor Marion Barry, and Saunders.
Newsom congratulated the government of Israel and its people on their 31st Independence Day. He called the new chancery an “architectural hallmark of the Israeli people.” Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, of Adas Israel Congregation, in his invocation, recited the 126th Psalm, the same Psalm chosen by Israeli Premier Menachem Begin in his remarks during the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
The new structure, a three-story building with an auditorium as a feature, will be the first of 14 designated by the State Department to serve foreign governments on the 220 acres once used by the National Bureau of Standards, the nation’s measurement laboratory now in Gaithersburg, Md. Israel’s chancery will be adjacent to a building to be used by Ghana.
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