One of the 35 American university students who are in Israel on a month-long United Jewish Appeal mission declared today after watching a group of immigrants arriving at Lydda Airport that “this is why Israel must live.” Many members of the group said they were planning to return and continue their studies in Israel. Charles Ribakoff of Worcester, Mass., who made the comment, added that he had plans to settle in Israel. The American students had much praise for the Israeli armed forces. They agreed that the United States and Israel were worlds apart in their attitude toward war. The fighting in Israel, they said, was based on a commitment to individual and national survival against Arab threats. They contrasted this stand with anti-war sentiment in the U.S.
The young Americans said that Israeli soldiers were far more mature than their counterparts of the same age in other countries and added that Israeli girls also seemed much more mature than American girls of the same age. They said that “now that they had the facts,” they planned to explain the “Israeli situation” to youth on American campuses but added that they realized that members of the campus New Left had “closed minds on the issues.” They are expected to leave Israel Aug. 8.
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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.
