Sen. Henry M. Jackson warned both Israel and the United States today to reject unequivocally Egypt’s latest offer to re-open the Suez Canal if Israel withdraws from the east bank of the waterway. Addressing the B’nai B’rith Israel Bonds inaugural dinner here, the Washington Democrat alleged that compliance with the proposal by Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat would deprive Israel of its “trump card” in future peace negotiations with Egypt and would serve Soviet, not American, strategic interests. Sen, Jackson described the Egyptian proposal as a “high priority objective for the Soviets to increase the effectiveness of the Russian Navy and merchant fleet” and “gain control over the oil supply on which our Western European and Japanese allies are totally dependent” Jackson claimed that to permit the reopening of the Canal at this stage of the negotiations under United Nations mediator Gunnar V. Jarring “would run counter to American interests.” “This is a time,” he said, “to stand firm and resist the temptation to make unwise concessions,” He described the Canal as a “trump card” in any forthcoming settlement of the Israel-Arab dispute. “Agreement on this point should be withheld until a settlement of the fundamental issues is reached,” Jackson maintained. “With the Canal back in operation, one of the chief incentives the Soviets have to make concessions on other outstanding differences will vanish,” he said.
Jackson accused the Soviet Union of nurturing within the Arabs “the distant hope that Israel will one day be destroyed.” He also lashed out at the Nixon administration’s Middle East policy which, he charged was “marked by uncertainty and vacillation.” “We should be speaking to the Soviets with the utmost clarity about the Middle East,” Jackson said. Alleging administration failure to propose an adequate level of military credit for Israel in its new 1971-72 budget, Jackson said, “The truth is that the strongest U.S. policy statement in support of Israel’s policy has come not from the White House or the State Department but from the Congress, by adoption of my amendment to the Defense Procurement Act of 1970.” His amendment led to a U. S. line on credit of $500 million to Israel for military procurement over a two year period. Jackson blamed “faulty judgment” for what he described as “U. S. inaction” when “the Soviets and Egyptians violated the Mideast military stance last August,”
He asserted that “We have often acted on the superficial assumption that because the Soviets do not want all-out war in the Middle East, they must desire all-out peace. When we come to appreciate that between the desire to avert war and the desire for peace there is an enormous range of Soviet Policy objectives, we shall have undertaken a first step in designing an effective Middle East policy.” The “unhappy truth” is that the Soviets, far from urging the radical Arab states to make peace with Israel, are “determined to keep tensions high and to nurture the distant hope that Israel will one day be destroyed,” he said. (The latest proposal by Sadat was also assailed last night as “nothing but a propaganda exercise” by Sen. Birch Bayh. The Indiana Democrat arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday as the guest of the Foreign Ministry and Haifa Technion for what is described as a “fact finding” tour. He is scheduled to meet Technion students tomorrow for an evening of “Questions and Answers.” Bayh’s itinerary includes visits to various parts of the country and meetings with Israeli leaders.)
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.
