The U.S. Government is interested in seeing a “sound and stable economy” in Israel and as well as maintaining “the good-will of the Moslem world,” Arthur Z. Gardiner, special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, declared here last night, at a forum sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Foreign Affairs of the University of Virginia.
The State Department official told his audience: “Those of you who may be especially interested in Israel will require little persuasion to believe that our interests, humanitarian and political, call for a sound and stable economy in that country, and for conditions there enabling the many who have found refuge from German and Russian persecution to lead a vigorous and democratic national life.
“It is equally true, that our national interests are also involved with the Arab peoples,” he said. “They, too, have an old culture which has done much to influence the West.” At the same time he criticized wealthy Arabs in the Middle East who “go on accumulating wealth without putting it back into the economy.” He said this was one of the reasons for the great poverty in the region.
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