Kenneth B. Keating, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel since 1973, died today at the age of 74, it was announced by the State Department. He had entered Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York after suffering a heart attack April 17. At the time, a spokesman for the Israel Desk at the State Department said he could neither confirm nor deny the report that Mr. Keating had suffered a heart attack nor that he was in a hospital. Subsequently, Mr. Keating’s wife was reported as saying that the Ambassador was expected to recover and return to Israel in about two weeks.
Ambassador Keating, a New York Republican, served for 12 years in the House of Representatives and was elected to the Senate in 1958. He was defeated for re-election in 1965 and a year later was appointed an associate justice in the New York State Court of Appeals, In 1968 he was named Ambassador to India by President Nixon, Since assuming his ambassadorial post in Israel in 1973 he was closely involved in U.S. Middle East policy and American aid for Israel, Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz, expressing his country’s deep sorrow in a telegram today to Mrs. Keating, referred to the Ambassador as a distinguished servant of his country.
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