Sen. George D. Aiken of Vermont, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took issue today with a bi-partisan statement by 16 Senators urging United States support of Israel in the Middle East conflict. Sen. Aiken said the U.S. should be “very cautious about taking positions in the Middle East” and warned that the Senators’ statement yesterday could “fan the flames of war, rather than quiet them down.” He said that “with a new Administration coming in within three weeks we would be well advised to wait until President Nixon takes office and gives us a thorough report on the situation.” He said he would oppose a move to introduce the statement as a “sense of the Senate” resolution. The statement, signed by eight Democrats and eight Republicans, criticized the Security Council’s censure of Israel for its Dec. 28 reprisal raid on Beirut Airport as “one-sided” in failing to condemn Arab acts of terrorism. It also urged, among other things, that the U.S. aid Israel in maintaining a balance of military strength with the Arabs.
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.
