Moshe Arad, the new Israeli Ambassador to Washington, told American Jewish leaders last week that although there are differences within the Israeli government, “there are more things that unite us than divide us.”
Arriving from Washington to a reception in his honor, given by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Arad emphasized that the Israeli government is in full agreement on the need to reach peace based on United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. He said that there is no division in the Israeli government on the need to keep Jerusalem united under Israeli control and toward the PLO “and its lack of qualification to take part in any Mideast negotiations.”
Noting that there are differences between Labor and Likud on the issue of an international conference for peace in the Mideast, the Ambassador said, however, “The unity among Israelis far transcends the differences.”
Arad, the former Israeli Ambassador to Mexico, also called for strengthening the bonds between American Jews and Israel. He said that the American Jewish community and the Jewish State share “a common destiny.”
Speaking on a more personal note with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Arad said he was moved by the warm reception extended to him by the American Jewish leaders, many of whom he knows from the time he served as a consul in the Israel Consulate in New York and as a special counselor in the Israel Embassy in Washington in the 1970’s.
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.
