On March 1, U.N. Ambassador Donald McHenry voted with all the other United Nations Security Council members for a resolution that “strongly deplores” Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied West Bank—Arab territories captured by the Zionists in the 1967 war.

Three days later, the White House said the vote had been an error, the result of a “failure in communications” between Washington and McHenry’s office in New York. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance is now taking the blame. But almost no one believes the White House account.

What is the underlying cause of this gaffe?

To portray it as personal bumbling or indecisiveness on Carter’s part misses the point. Underlying the administration’s floundering Mideast policy is the overall weakening of U.S. imperialism in the region since the Iranian revolution….

Washington must…try to defuse the explosive potential of the Arab revolution. The imperialists hope to convince the Palestinian and Arab masses that gains can be made in alliance with Washington.

Hence the need for Washington to take some distance from the most extreme policies of the Begin government of Israel.

But whenever the issue is pressed, Washington will side with its basic ally, Israel.  
 
March 14, 1955
CHICAGO—The branch of the Socialist Workers Party here wired Illinois Governor Stratton on Feb. 28 to take a strong stand to prevent the passage of the police state legislation known as the Broyles Bills.

The Broyles Bills do three things: (1) Declares “subversive” acts unlawful. (2) Declares membership in “subversive” organizations unlawful. (3) Permits the discharge of state and local employees who are “subversive persons.”

Previous attempts by Senator Broyles to pass such legislation were met with defeat due primarily to organized protest by labor unions, campus organizations, civic and fraternal groups. The present bills show every indication of being approved by the state legislature and by Governor Stratton.

Heralded as “watered down” versions, close examination of the bills reveals that they are more dangerous than ever before.

For example, any violation of Section 2 of S.B. No. 59 is liable to penalties up to $20,000, and any violator of Section 3 of the bill is liable to imprisonment for five years. These sections make it unlawful to knowingly be a member of a “subversive organization or a foreign subversive organization.”

Section 6 forbids public employees from being members of “any subversive organization or foreign subversive organization included in the following lists of organizations which are designated by the Attorney General of the United States as subversive organizations.  
 
 
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