Israel Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett warned today that “democracy has little chance of surviving on a global scale unless we succeed in eliminating the glaring economic inequalities that disgrace our civilization.”
In a speech specially recorded for the World Affairs Institute at the University of Denver, Colorado, Mr. Sharett said the democracies are threatened by a false sense of security. “In the last resort, the guarantee of civic freedom is to be found not in institutions or constitutional devices, but in the readiness of ordinary men to stake all on the attainment and the defence of liberty,” he stated.
“Democracy and human freedom can be maintained only if the plain people of the world have the political maturity to defy the blandishments of the demagogue, and the moral courage to resist the challenge of the would-be dictator from the moment he lifts his spurious banner,” Mr. Sharett continued. He said the world’s most difficult objective is the elimination of war, which he called “the arch-enemy” of human freedom.
He emphasized that Israel “time and again” declared its readiness to sit at a peace table and end the Middle Eastern tension. “In the end,” he said, “sheer necessity and enlightened self-interest will lead to understanding and a lasting peace” in the Middle East.
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