Jewish Veterans Spokesman Hits Fulbright on Anti-israel ‘witch Hunt’

The investigation of pro-Israel organizations by Chairman J.W. Fulbright, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was condemned today by Abraham Kraditor, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Jewish War Veterans of the U. S. A., at the organization’s 68th annual national convention here.

Mr. Kraditor asked: “If Sen. Fulbright’s probe of Zionist organizations is actually designed to obtain data to improve the foreign agents registration laws, and is not a biased witch-hunt aimed at supporters of Israel, why doesn’t the Senator subpoena the foreign agents of the Arabs in this country?”

It was suggested by the JWV foreign affairs chairman that Sen. Fulbright “consider the operations of the Arab Information Office, major oil companies with interests in the Near East, and such pressure groups as the so-called American Friends of the Middle East.” The Senator was also urged to “probe the attempts of the Arab Embassies to import religious prejudice into America by insisting on blacklists and boycotts against American citizens of Jewish faith.”

Mr. Kraditor said he doubted, however, that Sen. Fulbright really wanted to provide the public with a balanced picture of activities in this country involving our policies in the Near East. He charged that “the Senator had already indicated a one-sided, anti-Israel view by his open expressions in recent years, in which he appointed himself a champion of the Arab cause.”

ACCUSES SENATOR OF ‘FISHING EXPEDITION,’ HOPES HE WOULD ABANDON INQUIRY

Sen. Fulbright’s “fishing expedition into the activities of groups supporting Israel raised the specter of some sort of an international Jewish conspiracy a tragic and mean-spirited innuendo when we recall that this, in effect, is the same sort of image of the Jewish people the Nazis and Communists have tried to project,” according to Mr. Kraditor.

The Senator’s “insinuations, guilt-by-association technique, and lack of compassion for the humanitarian orientation of those who tried to provide a haven in Israel for the survivors of the monstrous Nazi persecutions does not speak well for a Senator who pontificates in the name of international culture and education,” said Mr. Kraditor. He expressed confidence that the American public would recognize Sen. Fulbright’s “petty pre-occupation with a personal peeve for what it is, at a time when such vital matters as the avoidance of nuclear conflict are in the forefront.”

Mr. Kraditor expressed hope that the Senator would abandon his “narrow and unilateral inquiry” or broaden it to “really implement the objectives he has stated as its true goal.”