Speech #890008164

The September 1964 issue of International Affairs is a case in point. In one of its features. Ironically titled "acts and Figures." International Affairsendeavors to reply with complete objectivity. if you please. to a question posed by one of its readers about the *problem of Palestine refugees in Arab countries." Here is an extremely delicate and complex issue which must be the concern of all humanitarians. but the "explanation" of International Affaird is nothing less than a cynical manipulatton of the "facts and figures." It is a callous effort to play on the emotions and fruitless hopes of these refugees rather than a sincere attempt to clarify the problem and to point a way toward its positive solution. According to International Affairs. the refugee problem arose in 1948 "when the British and American Imperialists provoked the ArabJewish war in Palestine." This strange formulation is made even stranger when in the next paragraph one reads that after the -formation of the State of Israel "war broke out" between the Arab countries and Israel. Of course. "war broke out." but International Affairs carefully avoids telling its readers the "whys" and the "wherefores" concerning the outbreak of that war. Actually. as historical records will testify (which even the Soviets cannot erase). there would have been no war if the Arab countries had not launched a military invasion. of the new State.