John Kennedy On The Myth Zionism Is Cause Of Middle East Problems

This myth—with which you are all too familiar—is the assertion that it is Zionism which has been the unsettling and fevered infection in the Middle East, the belief that without Israel there would somehow be a natural harmony throughout the Middle East and Arab world. Quite apart from the values and hopes which the State of Israel enshrines—and the past injuries which it redeems—it twists reality to suggest that it is the democratic tendency of Israel which has injected discord and dissension into the Near East. Even by the coldest calculations, the removal of Israel would not alter the basic crisis in the area.

Source: Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at the B'nai Zion Anniversary Dinner, New York, New York, (February 9, 1958). John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.