Arab diplomatic representatives in Washington initiated a violent campaign today against American Jewry and against Israel’s Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, who is now visiting the United States.
The Egyptian Embassy was reported today to have sent a communication to the State Department asking the United States Government to “prevent” Mr. Sharett’s “interference in internal American affairs” by participating in the Israel bond campaign in this country.
At the same time, Syrian Ambassador Farid Zeineddine strongly attacked American Jews, asserting that they were not really Semites, but for the most part descendants of Russian Slavs who had embraced Judaism. He revived the Nazi racial theory on Jews in the course of a speech delivered before the Women’s National Democratic Club here.
The anti-Jewish address by the Syrian Ambassador embarrassed the administration of the Club to a point where a Democratic spokesman found it necessary to declare after the meeting that speeches at the Club do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Club or of its members. The spokesman pointed out that the Club has also invited Israel Ambassador Abba Eban to speak and that he has accepted the invitation and will speak on Jan. 30.
The Syrian Ambassador said that an American security pact with Israel would create a situation of “American youths fighting against Arab youths in great bloodshed.” He charged that Jews are trying to incite Arabs and Americans against each other for their own “Zionist” purposes. “Why not let New York be a homeland for the Jews#” he asked.
Declaring that Jews throughout the world consider themselves “different” rather than an integral part of the country in which they reside, Mr. Zeineddine alleged that Jews do not try to assimilate and that their allegiance goes only to Zionism. He said that the Arabs are determined to “liberate” Palestine and compared this goal with the aspirations of George Washington and the early American colonists who sought to rid America of British domination.
The Syrian Ambassador claimed that a “curtain of confusion” is thrown about the American mind by “misinformation” that the “Zionist pressures” exert on the United States Government. He asserted that American-Arab relations were based not on fact, but on Zionist propaganda.
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.
