President Zalman Shazar of Israel paid tribute today on behalf of his nation to the late President Lyndon B. Johnson Shazar eulogized him for having written “a glorious chapter in the chronicle of friendship between the young State of Israel and mighty America.”
Arriving here last night from Tel Aviv the 83-year-old Israeli chief of state went directly from the airport to the Capitol rotunda where he observed a minute of silence before the flag-draped coffin of America’s 36th President. The stream of thousands of mourners who had come to the rotunda halted and the changing honor guard moved slowly as Shazar approached the bier.
The Israeli President attended funeral services for Mr. Johnson at the National City Christian Church where Mr. Johnson had often worshipped. Shazar was accompanied to the church by Avraham Harman, president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who was Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. during the Johnson administration, and by Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin. He was also accompanied by Lt. Col, Ephraim Evron, deputy director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry who was a Minister to Washington during the Johnson years. Harman and Evron travelled with Shazar from Tel Aviv.
‘WROTE A GLORIOUS CHAPTER’
President Johnson’s funeral was the third funeral for an American President at which Shazar represented the State of Israel. He attended services for the late President Harry S. Truman here only three weeks ago. In Nov. 1963 he attended the funeral of President John F. Kennedy.
Shazar observed in his eulogy that “I must once more, so soon after the passing of Harry S. Truman, express profound sorrow upon the untimely death of a great American President, a man of many achievements and far-ranging vision. Lyndon Baines Johnson wrote a glorious chapter in the chronicle of the developing friendship between the young State of Israel and mighty America.”
Continuing, Shazar said: “I have never forgotten being received by him on the mournful day his murdered predecessor was buried and the mantle of leadership fell upon him. Most emphatically he assured me that he would not depart from and would even strengthen the policy of friendly support for Israel. He did indeed do so and in most critical times, establishing principles which still light our path.”
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