Former Air Force Secretary Thomas K. Finletter told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today that the United States should demand Arab peace treaties with Israel because “the most damaging fact in the Near East is the continued assertion of a state belligerency by the Arab states against the State of Israel.”
Above all, he said, “our policy toward the Near East should give up all attempts to appease any country of the area at the cost of principles in which we ourselves believe.” He warned that “continuation of the economic blockade or any other form of war against the State of Israel “by the Arab powers” is a violation of the United Nations Charter and should not be accepted by any member of the United Nations.
The former Air Force Secretary said the United States should insist “primarily within the United Nations” that the Arab states sign peace treaties with Israel. He expressed a view that stability is impossible in the Near East until the virtual state of war between the Arabs and Israel is terminated.
He called for American initiative in proposing an embargo on arms shipments to the Near East and “and inspection and control system by the United Nations which should regulate and reduce the existing arms of the area to levels needed for domestic policing. ” However, he said no such arrangements were possible without peace treaties.
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.
