The Republican Party, which opens its national convention here tomorrow, has adopted a 1968 platform plank on the Middle East favoring United States military aid to Israel “such as supersonic fighters” as are necessary to bolster its strength against the Arab states being re-armed by Soviet Russia. The G.O.P. platform also, for the first time, openly condemned “continuing anti-Semitic actions by the Soviet Union.” The Middle East plank, which referred to that region as a “tinderbox,” pledged the Republican Party to “pursue a stable peace through recognition by all nations of each other’s right to assured boundaries, freedom of navigation through international waters, and independent existence free from the threat of aggression.” The platform said further that Republicans would seek an end to the arms race “through international agreement and the stationing of peace-table talks among adversaries.”
The platform called “the Soviet’s persistence in building an imbalance of military forces” in the Middle East “a growing menace to Israel,” and said that “her forces must be kept at a commensurate strength both for her protection and to help keep the peace of the area. The United States, therefore, will provide countervailing help to Israel, such as supersonic fighters, as necessary for these purposes.” The reference to Soviet anti-Semitic actions was contained in a foreign policy plank that said the United States would not condone aggression or so-called wars of national liberation. The plank also condemned Soviet efforts to eradicate all religions and its oppression of minorities generally.
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.
