Lester Maddox, a Georgia restaurant owner who became governor of his state as a champion of segregation and white supremacy, said today that he appreciated the way Jews and Arabs live together in Israel. “I accept their living this way as their custom, but no one is forcing a Jew to live in a certain place or an Arab to live somewhere. They’ve got freedom to associate or dissociate and that’s my position whether in the United States or here,” Maddox told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The ex-governor who is presently Lt. Gov. of Georgia, is visiting Israel with a group of 200 pilgrims and supporters. It is his first trip outside the U.S. Maddox told the JTA he was inspired by the friendliness of Israelis and was convinced that Israel deserves to exist because “it was prophesied in the Bible.”
Maddox said he “stands behind the policy of my government which is to preserve an independent Israel.” He said “I don’t do this because my government says it is militarily wise to support Israel — I believe that too — but because I am a strong believer in the Holy Bible and the Bible prophesies that the Jewish people will come back here.”
Maddox who rose to prominence in the 1960s when he defied Federal anti-segregation statutes by refusing to serve Blacks in his restaurant and kept them out with axe handles, said he thought both Israelis and Arabs would have to be flexible to achieve peace in the Middle East.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
