Concern over the reported agreement by Communist countries to supply arms to Egypt was expressed here today in a resolution adopted by the national executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America.
“Such arms, in large quantities and in heavy type suitable for aggressive warfare, in the hands of a government which has vowed to resume full-scale military action against Israel constitute a most serious threat to peace in the Middle East,” the resolution said.
Noting, with satisfaction, “the categorical denial of a previously announced offer of American arms to Egypt on the part of our State Department,” the resolution calls for a mutual security arrangement between the United States and Israel, stressing that “the stability which our government wishes to maintain in the Middle East can best be achieved” by such an arrangement and that “the new threat created by the Egyptian-Czech arms agreement represents the most cogent argument for the speedy conclusion of such an arrangement.”
An appeal to the U.S. Government not to send any arms to Egypt was voiced today on behalf of all Zionist groups in this country by Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, chairman of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. The appeal noted “the fact that Egypt is now negotiating with the USSR for the purchase of arms should deter us from making weapons available to the Egyptian Government which has seen fit to take a strong anti-American position in public declarations in the United Nations and which has revealed itself to be oblivious to free world principle and defense.
“On the other hand, Egypt’s acquisition of arms from the Soviet Union and the entry of the government into the Near East may be an ominous development. Against whom would these arms be used# Is there not real danger they would be used against Israel, a democracy completely committed to the free world.”
Rabbi Bernstein’s statement concluded: “We trust that our government will quickly reassure us that it does not plan to send arms to Egypt. A new and costly arms race would stimulate new tensions in that region and would completely subvert the constructive policy for peace and stability eloquently formulated by Secretary Dulles one month ago.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
