Ajcongress Tells Nixon It Expects Him to Stand by Pledge on Israel’s Strength

The American Jewish Congress put President Nixon on notice today that it expects him to stand by his campaign assertions that Israel’s military strength would be kept at a level to deter aggression and that the United States would deal directly with Russia to make sure its “client states” are kept in “check”. Addressing a rally dealing with Israel’s defense, AJCongress president Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld of Cleveland told 1,000 members that Jewry counted on Mr. Nixon’s leadership to prevent “Israel’s being sold into extinction or attrition by international wheeling and dealing.” The rally voted a resolution voicing confidence that Mr. Nixon would reject efforts by “outsiders” to impose a Mideast peace not accepted by Israel and the Arabs in direct negotiations.

Both Rabbi Lelyveld and Dr. Joachim Prinz of Newark, N.J., World Jewish Congress governing council chairman, decried as dangerous to Mideast peace the “illusion” that a Mideast war was on the verge of breaking out. Rabbi Lelyveld aid a “manufactured mood of hysteria” would enable the Kremlin to achieve through appeasement a settlement at the expense of Israel’s security. Dr. Prinz called for a U.S. policy that demands an end to terrorism and the Arab refusal to recognize Israel, and calls for a negotiated and “mutually respected relationship of peaceful co-existence and co-operation.”

Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York City declared that the United Nations must end its “double standard” in its treatment of Israel and the Arabs. He said Israel is the potential victim of international “conduct which threatens to leave it helpless before renewed aggression.” The U.S., he stressed, must refuse “to permit Israel to become a victim of superior military might.” Father Edward Flannery, executive secretary for Catholic-Jewish relations of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, declared, “Israel’s existence…must be preserved and guaranteed. Israel must be accorded all means necessary for a vigorous economic life.” It must not “be a victim of terrorism, guerrilla warfare, border raids and inflammatory propaganda,” he said.