President-elect Jimmy Carter announced in Plains, Ga. today that he has named Rep. Andrew Young (D. Ga.), a former associate of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Young, 44, was the first Black elected to Congress from the deep South in this century and the first Black that Carter has appointed to a night post in the incoming Administration. Young served as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership during the civil rights struggle headed by Dr. King in the 1960s.
Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, hailed Young’s appointment and praised him as “a man of courage and intellect, of deep compassion and broad understanding.”
He said Young “will bring to his post not only these personal qualities but also a close knowledge–based on his own leadership in the civil rights movement–of the contributions of American Jews to the struggle for racial justice in America and the aspirations of Israel’s people to live in peace in dignity and in security.”
SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL CITED
Schindler noted that “as a member of Congress, Andrew Young has compiled a distinguished record as a warm friend, ardent supporter and eloquent advocate of American economic and political support of Israel.”
The National Council of Young Israel expressed its “substantial pleasure” at the appointment of Young. Herman Rosenbaum, president of the organization of Orthodox synagogues, recalled Young’s “continuing support for Israel both during the recent Presidential campaign and for several years before the campaign.”
Rosenbaum declared that “Andrew Young is one of the men most able to stand up in the United Nations for Justice, security and peace for Israel; By his manner and background, he will work for the benefit of the United States and Israel in the UN and with the representatives of its member states, including those of the Third World.”
CRITICAL OF ARAB POLICIES
Young has spoken out in defense of Israel during his tenure in Congress. In 1973, at the time of the Yom Kippur War, he joined in a statement by the Congressional Black Caucus proclaiming that “the U.S. has a moral obligation not only to the Israeli people but to ourselves to preserve Israel’s sovereignty.” In August, 1975 he was one of 10 Black members of Congress to condemn Arab-attempts to suspend Israel from the UN and to call on Congress to declare to the world that suspension was “morally untenable.”
In another statement. Young asked, “Are we so dependent on the oil reserves of the Arab states that we are willing to abandon our moral obligations to the State of Israel and permit those (Arab) countries to dictate our foreign policies?”
This week, when television newsmen questioned Young in New York about his views on urgent matters before the UN, such as the Middle East conflict, he observed that the Arab states were using Israel as a “whipping boy” to get the U.S.
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