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Klutznick Urges Exchange of Ambassadors Between Morocco and Israel

May 24, 1956
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Diplomatic amity between Morocco and Israel could be “a means toward Arab-Israeli rapport in the Middle East, “Philip M. Klutznick, president of B’nai B’rith, declared here last night addressing the 104th annual convention of B’nai B’rith’s District One which is attended by 1,600 delegates. “Political mutuality between the two young nations would be a dramatic force toward peace and economic stability in that area,” he said.

“An exchange of ambassadors by Israel and Morocco as soon as political conditions in Morocco permit, would give reassurance to the free world that Morocco is entering the family of nations in a spirit of neighborliness and with a wholesome concern for the peaceful development of its human and material resources,” Mr. Klutznick said. “Similarly, the success of this diplomatic relationship could point up the folly of intransigence which now dominates the leadership of the Arab League states.”

The convention concluded today with a number of resolutions relating to Israel and Arab-Jewish tensions. It applauded the recent peace mission of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold to the Middle East and urged UN efforts to supplement it “by the time-tested policy of balance of military power as a deterrent to war.” To achieve this, the resolutions called for the Western nations to supply Israel with “essential defensive arms.”

Citing the acts of Saudi Arabia in excluding Americans of Jewish faith, “even compelling our armed forces to look into the religion of their troops in order to insure exclusion of American-Jewish servicemen from American bases in that country,” the delegates asked that the State Department “express forcefully its disapproval” of such acts of discrimination against American citizens.

The convention also charged Arab League nations with “the promotion of anti-Semitism” in the United States and urged the State Department “to prevent the continued abuse of diplomatic privileges and American hospitality by Arab diplomatic representatives in this country.”

In other resolutions the convention urged that all concerned with implementation” of the Supreme Court desegregation decision “stress the need for law and order basic to American traditions and for methods which would help preserve the peace,” and called for support of President Eisenhower’s recommendations to Congress that it re-examine the national quota origins system written into the U.S. immigration laws and increase the current annual immigrants quotas outside that system. Federal District Judge Sidney Sugarman of New York was elected president of District One of B’nai B’rith, which comprises New York, New England and Eastern Canada.

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