Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life. It is quite natural that American Jews should feel particularly involved with Israel's destiny. That small land in the eastern Mediterranean saw the birth of your faith and your people thousands and thousands of years ago. Down through the centuries, through dispersion and through very grievous trials, your forefathers clung to their Jewish identity and clung to their ties with the land of Israel.
History knows no more moving example of persistence against the cruelest odds.
But conflict has surrounded the modern State of Israel since its very beginning. From the day that war broke out, our policy-the policy of this Government has been to work in every capital, to labor in the United Nations, to convert the armistice arrangements of 1949 into a stable and agreed regime of peace. No day has passed since then without our taking active steps to try to achieve this end. The atmosphere of fear and mutual suspicion has made communication between the two sides extremely difficult. In this setting the plans of reasonable men, both Arabs and Israelis, have been frustrated.