Strong endorsements to the Nixon administration policy in the Middle East, with emphasis on continued US support for Israel and for freedom of Soviet Jews to emigrate marked the statements presented today to the Republican Resolutions Committee by Sen. Jacob Javits, New York senior Senator, and Mark Tullis, a Boston University law student. Tullis, 22, of Manhasset, N.Y. spoke as one of five members of “The Young Voters for the President Committee.” Formal hearings before the committee, headed by Rep. John Rhodes of Arizona, will end tomorrow and the committee will start drafting Friday a platform for the Republican National Convention opening here next Monday.
Sen. Javits called the US policy in the Middle East “very sound” and presented a 500-word strongly pro-Israel statement. Sen. Javits credited the Nixon administration with “keeping the peace in the Middle East by maintaining Israel’s deterrent strength.” Citing the Mideast cease-fire, Javits asked for continuation of the “successful policy” of the past four years” of “essential military and economic assistance” to Israel.
Sen. Javits recommended a “strong US defense presence in the Mediterranean to discourage adventurism there and to protect vital US interests in the area.” He also recommended that the US “be prepared to lend its good offices to assist in the attainment of a peace agreement” in the Middle East through “direct negotiations.” He urged a pledge to “preserve the unity and peace of Jerusalem” and move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv. Additionally, Sen. Javits advocated promoting “the rehabilitation and resettlement of the Palestine Arab refugees,” helping Israel absorb Jewish refugees from Arab lands and the Soviet Union, and intensifying diplomatic efforts to “obtain basic human rights, including the right of emigration and family reunion, for Jews and other minorities suffering maltreatment and denial of their rights in the USSR, in Syria and other lands where they have lived in peace for centuries.”
Sen. Javits added strong support for US ratification of the Genocide Convention–a subject omitted from the Democratic platform. He said Senate ratification should be “prompt” in view of President Nixon’s “expressed desire” for approval.
Tullis said the US “should continue to pressure the Soviets to release those Jews willing to leave the country, as we should pressure any country that oppresses a people.” He said the Mideast truce “has stood because the President has made it clear to the world that Israel’s autonomy would not be sacrificed.”
I.L. Kenen, executive vice-president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, urged a plank which “serves notice on the Arab states and the Soviet Union of our unswerving resolution to preserve Israel’s survival and to promote an Arab-Israel peace settlement.” The AIPAC statement is endorsed by the 26-member Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and by the American Jewish Committee.
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.
