Speech #870083239

Mr. President. recently published letters which President Kennedy sent on May 11 to the heads of several Arab governments raise serious questions about the American position on the issue of Arab refugees. The new administration is committed to help solve this persistent problem. The Middle East plank in the Democratic platform of 1960 refers specifically to its solution through "the resettlement of Arab refugees in lands where there Is room enough and opportunity for them." A similar view was expressed in the Republican platform of 1960. This is not a partisan position. but a statement of national policy. It was all the more disturbing. then. to read in the Presidents letters addressed to Arab leaders the suggestion that repatriation and/or compensation may be the answer to the refugee problem. Resettlement is not even mentioned. Does this omission represent a change of view. or a repudiation of former policy? I am aware that some people in the State Department think that an offer of repatriation should be made to the Arab refugees. The advocates of this proposal believe there is little risk that many Arab refugees would elect to return to Israel. which has become a completely strange country to them. I do not think that the majority of Congress shares this view. If "you cant go home again". is generally true. how reluctant will the Arab refugees be to return to a place which has no resemblance to the homes they fled 13 years ago? Thus goes the oversimplified reasoning of the "let the Arab refugees have the chance to choose" school of thought. This school of thought ignores the fact that for 13 years Arab leaders have been indoctrinating the Arab refugees with hatred of Israel and with the ghoulish promise that they will one day return to destroy it. It is as politically dangerous to ignore this fact as it is patently illogical to omit it from consideration of the Arab refugee problem. What is a refugee? According to the dictionaryWebsters New Collegiate Dictionary. 1956a refugee isone who flees for safety. specifically. a person who has fled or been ejected from his country of nationality or of habitual residence for reasons of race. religion. nationality. or political opinion or as a victim of one of tile Nazi. Fascist. or quisling regimes. also a German or Austrian resident of Jewish or foreign origin detained under Nazi persecution. or returned thither after flight through the vicissitudes of war. and not yet resettled. Those who are so designated represent a human tragedy of wasted lives. frustration and bitterness. They are not yet resettled. Some 200.000 of these are children under 8 years of age who were born refugees. On humanitarian grounds the plight of these hapless people does. or should. lie heavily on the conscience of the world community. It is hardly cynical to note that reliance on the conscience of the world community solves very few problems. Though few issues have been more often aired in more forums than the socalled Arab refugee question. I repeat some salient facts for the record: The Arab refugee problem came about as a result of the war launched by the Arab States against Israel in 1947 and 1948. On May 14. 1948. the date that Israel declared its independence. the armed forces of Egypt. Jordan.