A number of Congressmen paid tribute today to Israel from the floor of the House on the occasion of Israel’s Independence Day. They included Charles A. Boyle, of Chicago, Irwin D. Davidson of New York, Kenneth B. Keating of New York and others.
Rep. Davidson said he hoped the Chinese Communist support of the Arab anti-Israel position the Bandung conference would not set off a “competition by our State Department and the Communists for Arab favor” at Israel’s expense. Pointing out that Israel was neither invited nor permitted to attend the African-Asian conference, he said: “This discrimination is all the more unpalatable because it was practices by a conference espousing bitter opposition to all forms of discrimination and segregation.”
Rep. Davidson called attention to the final communique of the Bandung conference which contained a declaration supporting the Arab side of the Arab-Israel conflict. “It is not only inconsistent with every concept of fair play to consider a controversy in the absence of one of the principals but to take action on that controversy as was done at Bandung without hearing both sides can have no moral justification whatever, “he stated He called on the Arab states to give some evidence of their intention to settle their differences with Israel peacefully.
Rep. Victor L. Anfuso of New York warned the House the. State Department policies are endangering Israel-American friendship. “Unfortunately of late our State Department has embarked upon a policy in the Middle East which is endangering this relationship,” he said. “In its efforts to gain Arab favor, the State Department is going all out to appease the Arab states. Israel is being gradually isolated, its national security is threatened, and its very existence is at stake. This is an erroneous policy,” he said.
(Confidence that in the State of Israel the Jews “might become a still greater and more powerful influence for good in the world,” was expressed by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra T. Benson in a letter to Dr. Israel Goldstein, Mr. Benson a Mormon, wrote in response to a letter from Dr. Goldstein congratulating the Mormon Church on its 125th anniversary).
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