There will be no lasting peace in the Middle East so long as the Western Powers, including the United States, fail to make insistence on an Arab-Israel peace the cornerstone “for any program or policy” in that part of the world, Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin of Maryland tonight declared here at the closing session of the 40th annual convention of Hadassah.
Governor McKeldin warned that Communism will make political capital by fishing in the “troubled waters” of the Middle East “as long as these countries remain at war, whether it be a declared war or a tolerated series of outbreaks in violation of a truce.”
Urging the delegates “not to become discouraged by talk of a so-called new policy of ‘impartiality’ in our State Department,” Gov. McKeldin said: “There may be some who have been urging this policy as a cloak for an unfriendly attitude towards Israel and out of sinister and evil motives. I have every confidence, however, that our Secretary of State has the highest motives and the interest of what he conceives to be the security of our country. Granting that, however, does not deprive anyone of the right or the duty, as Americans, to differ with that policy and to state his position honestly, clearly and effectively.”
Criticizing the proposed grant of American military supplies to the Arab states, Gov. McKeldin said: “If Communism spreads into the Arab countries, it will not be by force of invading armies, but by the exploitation of the abysmal degradation and poverty of the Arab masses. In sending arms to the feudal masters, are we identifying ourselves with the status quo of economic serfdom?”
“Israel is the only truly democratic state, the one island of freedom in that vast area of medieval absolutism, “Gov. McKeldin stressed. “Its people have a burning passion for liberty and freedom. That freedom was not given to them, because freedom is not a gift. Freedom must be won and this the Israelis did with their blood and their lives. For our own security, should we not assure the security of the one natural ally we have in that part of the world?”
HADASSAH ADOPTS $9, 000, 000 BUDGET; MRS. SHULMAN RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT
A $9,000,000 budget was adopted for 1954-55, including $2,300,000 for Youth Aliyah; $3, 000,000 for the Hadassah Medical Organization; $1,000,000 for the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, in Israel; $700,000 for the Jewish National Fund; and $600,000 for vocational education work in Israel.
Mrs. Herman Shulman, of Stamford, Conn., was re-elected for a second term as national president of the organization. Mrs. Siegfried Kramarsky, of New York, was re-elected treasurer; Mrs. Mortimer Jacobson, of New York, was chosen national secretary; Mrs. Joseph Rasch was elected national recording secretary; and Mrs. Raphael Tour over was chosen for another term as Washington representative for Hadassah.
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