Arthur Goldberg, Democratic Party state committee candidate for governor, warned that the use of Soviet pilots by Egypt is a matter of deep concern to this country and called on the Nixon administration to make “absolutely clear to the Russians that they must not meddle in the Middle East and they must keep their men out.” In a statement issued yesterday, the former Supreme Court Justice declared that President Nixon can be blamed for Soviet intervention in the Israeli-Arab war. The latest development can be “laid directly at the door of the Nixon administration,” he charged. Criticizing Nixon for “too much American indecisiveness,” Mr. Goldberg urged the president to “publically announce that we are selling the 125 jets to Israel.” He added; “When President Nixon announced on March 23 that he would not sell the requested 125 jets to Israel, it was taken by the Russians as a signal that the United States was less serious and less committed than it had been to maintaining the balance of arms in the Mideast.”
At the same time, members of Congress were inundating the White House with requests for speedy approval of sale of Phantom and Sky hawk jets to Israel in the wake of the announcement that Soviet pilots are flying Egyptian planes. Rep. Emanuel Celler, Brooklyn Democrat, said that United States credibility as a loyal ally depended on immediately supplying “Phantom Jets and other weapons” to Israel to “prevent a further military escalation.” Sen. Richard Schweiker, Pennsylvania Republican, said that “even-handedness is a nice policy on paper but we are dealing with unequal sides.” Sen. Alan Cranston, California Democrat, said he approved President Nixon’s decision to review the situation and that he hoped that the president “will move promptly to provide Israel with the fighter-bombers she so urgently needs.”
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.
