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He is from Wisconsin. There must be some Wisconsin syndrome, because almost everybody from Wisconsin, maybe Henry Reuss being an exception, is very bad onsupport of Israel; and Dave Obey is one of the worst. He's a charming guy, very highly regarded and a hard worker and a very dangerous adversary. So he approached me one time not long ago and asked if I would like to go with him to Israel -- the Mideast I really think he met. And of course I would want to go -- one, to keep contact with Israel but also to bird dog him, because I knew that whatever he would do would be anti-Israeli; and if he sees something, I want to be there to see the same thing so I can give the other point of view if there is another point of view, because his would never be pro-Israel.

So the three of us went, Joe Early and I; and we became very good friends, Joe Early and myself.

Now you ask whether there were any problems. There were only in Syria. When we got to Syria, I had already made up my mind that I was going to go to the Damascus Jewish quarter, and so when we got off the plane we were told by the American ambassador that Assad, President Assad, was entertaining the president of Yemen and therefore would not see us. He was the only leader of any of the countries that did not see us, and it had been my intention to ask Assad if I could go and visit the Jewish quarter and the synagogues. So when the ambassador told me that -- his name was Murphy -- I said, “Well, then I would like to go to the synagogue tomorrow, as though it were a religious matter. He was very upset and said, “Well, we'll see if