Speech #910276014

I fought battles for equal opportunity for Arabs in Israel. and I am very proud of.that. I think it is very sound statesmanship. It is. therefore. with:. a very. heavy heart that I see these commandos. largely Palestinean Arabs. driven -literally to madness. as I can see only harm to those whoare legitimately refugees andto the effort to work for relief of a problem which Is a fact and not a theory and which vll have to be an element of any peace settlement in the Middle East. and a very important one. I would like .to pledge myself. Mr. President. notwithstanding. this terrible discouragement. to indefatigably continue in the hope that enlightenment and reason will assert themelves. and that the great mass of even thesePalestinian Arab refugees do not share in this madness. which is apparently the property of an alleged Maoist group. a small but very wild and extremist group. .that the world may successfully surmount this crisis. that the humanity of the perpetrators themselves may be maintained in so dangerous and terrible a situation. and that we may get on with the work of bringing about some order and some effort to ameliorate the whole condition which has brought about this madness. I repeat that I think my colleague has taken a fine initiative. with deep understanding of the situation. and again I commend the President and the Secretary of State for their handling of one of the most trying. in the human sense crises which have faced our country in a considerable period of time.