May 2, 1968
Page 11540
Mr. SCOTT. Mr. President, today we observe the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel.
This is an observance of great moment, not alone to Israel but to the friends of that gallant nation throughout the world who believe, as I do, that Israel has an importance that transcends both time and geography.
The land itself is the birthplace of civilization as we know it today and it has special meaning to all three of the world's great religions.
But for the Jewish people, it is the "homeland."
Since 73 A.D., when the last Jewish defenders died after a valiant stand at Masada, the Jewish people dreamed of a return to their traditional homeland. In the 19th century a band of determined people known as Zionists decided that this dream could be brought to reality and began the settlement of Palestine. But throughout the 20th century, as Jews got closer and closer to establishing a homeland, their goal always seemed to elude them. It was during the 1940's that I first began helping that objective as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Through resolutions in the 1940's, conferences with the then Secretary of State, and a variety of other activities, I learned more about the goals of the establishment of a homeland. I grew increasingly convinced that such an objective was in the interests of free representative government, stability in the Middle East, and therefore in the best interests of the United States.
There were even times when I was intermediary in the purchases of certain supplies vital to the effort.
Therefore, following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 I felt a satisfying sense of participation in an act of creation.
Today, Israel stands proud and vigorous as a leading nation of the free world. It has accepted immigrants from throughout the world and built a nation literally from the ground up.
Israel has proved not only that it has the will and the capacity to defend its rights and sovereignty through the force of arms, but that it has the will and capacity also to grow and hold its own as a defender of the principles of government to which we in the United States fully subscribe.
For both reasons, Israel has been the center of controversy. Its neighbors resent the establishment of a Jewish homeland and regularly move to eliminate the state. The Soviet Union, partly to enlist the support of the Arab states and partly out of fear of strong free institutions, has moved vast military forces into the area.
It must be our task to see that neither inflamed jealousies nor international communism weaken or destroy the only real friend the United States has in that area of the world.
We in the United States move by word and deed to uphold free institutions throughout the world, sometimes – as in Vietnam – at the cost of many American lives and billions of American dollars. In the Middle East, the Israelis are doing that job for us and for all the free world with a minimum of demands upon the United States.
But we must meet those demands. We dare not let down the gallant Israelis. We must reinforce in their minds the fact that we have as deep a commitment to their freedom as we do to free people everywhere. And we must help with military hardware Israel's need for deterrent strength.
And we must also work for peace. The only real solution to the problems that beset the Middle East is an end to the bitterness and a permanent peace through direct negotiations.
The Middle East has a vast potential for good. The desert can bloom like a garden not only in Israel but throughout the area if its people will come together with reason and in harmony.
That has been the end to which I have worked for a quarter of a century. That should be the objective of all of us on this day when we observe the 20th anniversary of the State of Israel and when we congratulate a people for a job well done that still needs more work, more patience and continued dedication to the good of all mankind.
Mr. PROUTY. Mr. President, I join Senators in commemorating the 20th anniversary of Israel independence day.
This is a memorable day for any nation, but for the valiant country of Israel it has so much more significance because of the history of struggle for its people.
The theme of the song from "The Man From La Mancha" is the hope of the impossible dream.
The Nation of Israel is testimony to the value of dreaming an impossible dream. Some 32 centuries ago the ancestors of today's Jews migrated into Palestine and made portions of it their home. Following the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 63 B.C., the Jews gradually dispersed to the four corners of the world. Though forced to live in exile for almost 2,000 years they remained bound together by a common body of beliefs, knowledge of customs, and by a shared concept of their own history and destiny – the deliverance from exile and return to the homeland.
From the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the withdrawal of British troops in December of 1947, the impossible dream of a great people came closer and closer to the hour.
From the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, to this very minute the Israelis have demonstrated their determination and valiant efforts to defend and build their homeland into a viable nation.
I personally extend to the new Israeli Ambassador, Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, my congratulations on his country's 20th anniversary and I wholeheartedly support the resolution introduced by my distinguished colleagues.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleagues in tribute to Israel on the occasion of her 20th birthday today.
Twenty years is but a moment in history for those people who waited thousands of years for a land to call home.
But in these two decades, the people of Israel have telescoped centuries of progress. Arid lands have been cultivated into fertile fields. Cities and towns, universities, museums, and a representative and stable government have been built.
An industrious people have established a modern and progressive society which is both a marvel. and an inspiration to thoughtful men around the world.
I wish this brave nation continued progress in the years ahead.
Mr. WILLIAMS of New Jersey. Mr. President, this week marks the 20th anniversary of the rebirth of the Jewish State of Israel.
After almost 2,000 years of wandering throughout the world, Jews again have a nation that is their homeland.
Israel's rebirth was marred by an immediate outbreak of hostilities with her Arab neighbors. The 1948 war was followed by further war in 1956 and 1967. In all these conflicts, Israel emerged victorious. But her security is by no means certain today. The Arab nations have threatened genocide for 20 years and refuse to discuss peace. Soviet arms and advisers have been poured into Egypt and Syria.
In the past 20 years, Israel has reclaimed the arid desert and made it bloom. Medical technology in Israel is the most advanced of any Mid-Eastern nation. Her citizens enjoy the highest standard of living in that region of the globe and exercise their full rights under a truly democratic form of government.
It is a privilege for me to salute the gallant young State of Israel on this anniversary, and it is my fervent hope that the year to come will bring lasting peace to that troubled region.
Gov. Richard Hughes of New Jersey has declared Friday, May 3, to be "New Jersey Salute to Israel Day." I join with my fellow citizens of New Jersey in this most deserved honor.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join today in cosponsoring a resolution honoring the people and State of Israel.
Twenty years ago Israel emerged as a new member of the family of nations. Undaunted by overwhelming political, military, and economic obstacles which threatened their survival, the people of this proud land struggled successfully to create a new existence.
From humble beginnings, the State of Israel has created a strong and buoyant economy with scant natural resources. The concept of democracy took root and has flourished. All nations can learn much from the Israel experience. For the past two decades, the world has observed Israel surmount every imaginable adversity to become, through hard work and perseverance, a model of successful nation building.
And so I join my colleagues in extending best wishes and congratulations to Israel on the 20th anniversary of her existence as a state. We honor her people and share her ideals as a nation. And we hope that the time will come when the trying political troubles of the Middle East can be resolved in the spirit of peace and mutual trust.
Mr. CLARK. Mr. President, today's turbulent world offers us fewer and fewer occasions for celebration and hope and assurance of the future. One of these rare events, most certainly, is the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Israel's independence, which we honor in the Senate today.
The free world and free men and women everywhere have heartfelt reason to rejoice in the miracle of Israel's survival and success. Survival has required the waging of three successful wars against enormous odds to preserve the young nation's independence and promise.
More than any other new nation born in this century, Israel has proved the indomitable strength of democracy. The miracle of Israel lies not alone in the flourishing democracy it has created in the Holy Land but in its unique success in spreading the idea and practice of democracy, along with economic and technical progress, to other lands, to emerging nations in Africa and Asia.
The abiding admiration, affection, and rapport that the people of the United States feel for Israel is also rooted deeply in the common elements of our national origins. Israel and the United States were both born of a great and dramatic "ingathering" of the dispossessed from many corners of the world, an ingathering, as Emma Lazarus wrote of the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the homeless and the tempest-tossed.
These were our country's founders, and they were Israel's. These were the refugees from persecution and oppression who shaped our common freedoms, molded our precious liberties, and created our factories and farms.
Our countries are linked together by our mutual dedication to the democratic dream, to our profoundly shared belief in the dignity of man and the preciousness of human life. The men and women of Israel and the people of the United States are today, and must always be, brothers and sisters in a common cause, the common ideal of human brotherhood.
But while we rejoice in two decades of Israel's independence and progress, we do not permit ourselves to forget that this new nation and its courageous pioneering people are not yet secure. They are, regrettably, as embattled today as 20 years ago when the blue-and-white flag with the Star of David was first raised over Jerusalem and Haifa and collective farms from Dan to Beersheba.
Because Israel's enemies proclaim today, as they have in years past, their fanatical obsession with destroying the nation and driving its people into the sea, Israel today and tomorrow must know that America stands stanchly by its side.
Israel more than ever before is an oasis of democracy and humanity in the Middle East; therefore it deserves and must have every kind of support – economic, political and military – that the United States and other free nations can possibly extend.
I pledge to Ambassador Rabin and to Israel's heroic men and women that it shall have that support in full measure. I am determined that Israel shall live and that "Shalom" will become not only a greeting and a hope, but a reality of encompassing peace for all time to come.
Mr. HARTKE. Mr. President, today is the birthday of a modern miracle in the land that spawned Western civilization and the world's greatest religions.
Israel is a miracle in many ways. It is a miracle that such a state was created 20 years ago. It is a miracle that it survived what its citizens know as the war of independence when its armed services surmounted those of surrounding countries who outnumbered them nearly 20 to 1.
Israel is a miracle in the way her determined young men and women have made the desert bloom with oranges now sold around the world. She has made King Solomon's mines produce copper. She has turned sea water into sweet. She has unlocked the secrets of atomic energy. She has planted a million trees on the slopes near Jerusalem. She has begun to fulfill a 2,000-year-old dream.
Today Jerusalem has been reopened as the Holy City of three faiths and all have free access to their respective shrines.
Today Israel is exporting know-how in science, technology, and agriculture to newer nations in Africa and Asia. She even teaches modern methods to Europe. Faced with danger from attack, guerrilla raids from neighbors, and a land which still suffers from the neglect of centuries, Israel is prospering nevertheless. She is a Western-oriented democracy that is an oasis in a desert of despotism and feudalism. She is America's unshakable ally.
When the history of the last half of this century is read by our descendants, it will be marked by the gallant people who fled tyranny and oppression and who began again to make this Biblical land flow with milk and honey. From the ghettos of North Africa and the concentration camps of Europe, from all corners of the globe, the dregs of humanity returned to the land of their dreams and their prayers.
Free men who believe that freedom will inevitably triumph join today in saluting the 20th anniversary of the miracle that is Israel.
Mr. BYRD of West Virginia. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my name be added to the list of Senators extending congratulations to the people of Israel on this, the 20th anniversary of the establishment of an independent Jewish state.
Mr. YARBOROUGH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my name be added to that list also.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.