Speech #850250784

Britain. and Francewould enable the MiddleEast nations to reduce the size of their armies and to engage in constructive works of peace. instead of tensioncreating borderpatrol duty. Second. Require the payment of reparations by the Israeli Government to Arab refugees. for their property which was taken or which fell into the hands of the Israeli Government or its nationals. Third. Solve the tremendous and tragically inhumane refugee problem that resultedand still exists todayfrom the creation of the Israeli Republic and the disastrous war with the Arab States which accompanied the establishment of Israel. Hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the birth of a new Republic in the center of one of the oldest civilized areas have been kept alive by the United Nations refugee program. but they have also been kept homeless and frustrated in the corroding atmosphere of refugee camps which have become a symbol of Arab irritation and resentment against the establishment of the State of Israel. This tragic problem of a most deplorable waste of human resources in festering centers of international illwill must be solved before any substantial progress can be made toward stability in the MidEast. We and other nations have been pussyfooting around this problem for several years now. because it points up what some have not wished to admit. namely. that one of the basic causes of unrest in the MidEast has been the establishment of the State of Israel in the midst of the Arab nations of the MidEast. That action and the conflicts which accompanied it led to the establishment of the sickening. hopedestroying. refugee camps made necessary by the war. and maintained ever since largely because leaders of the Arab nationalist movement felt that the camps must be preserved as "symbols" of the "cruel war." Not only do these permanent "transient" camps represent an appalling waste of nearly 1 million human lives. but they also tend to increase Arab resentment. not only against Israel. but also against the United States and other Western nations which were helpful in the creation of the Israeli State. Mr. President. at this point let me say that I do not attempt to pass on the merits. either one way or the other. of the establishment of the State of Israel.