Israeli Premier Golda Meir reaffirmed Israel’s wish for peace, saying “our neighbors must know that the only solution for them and for us is in peace.” The Premier was addressing some 900 persons at Brandeis University where she was flown yesterday afternoon in a specially chartered plane from LaGuardia Airport in New York to Hanscom Field Air Force Base, a 15-minute drive from the university. She was accompanied on the plane by her entourage, Israeli correspondents and Yitzhak Rabi, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s United Nations correspondent.
Security was extremely tight. Armed soldiers lined the road from the airport to the university, a helicopter patrolled from above and a police car followed as Mrs. Meir was driven in a black limousine to the university where she was welcomed by cheering students and admirers waving Israeli flags.
Mrs. Meir was greeted by university president Marver H. Bernstein who presented her on behalf of the university with an engraving by Israeli artist David Sharir. Bernstein then presented the Premier with an honorary doctor of law degree which Mrs. Meir, dressed in black graduation robes, said she accepted on behalf of all the people of Israel who were really responsible for the achievements of the Jewish State, and on behalf of the Jews in the Soviet Union “who struggle to come” to Israel.
“The renowned leader of Israel who honors us today personifies those rare qualities without which Israel would never have been established and sustained,” Bernstein said, presenting the degree which marked the joint celebration of both Israel’s and Brandeis’ 25th anniversaries.
Referring to her hopes for peace in the Middle East, Mrs. Meir said she did not know when it would come, but that she believed it would come sooner or later. She said Israel’s most notable achievement was not military but the creation, of a country “that nobody wanted in 2000 years.” Israel had to fight, she said, because it was a “very sad and tragic necessity, and thank God we could win the wars.” But she continued, if she were asked to summarize Israel’s achievements in one sentence, it would be: “A Yemenite woman learning how to read and her husband not preventing her from doing so.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
