Sen. Howard H. Baker (R.Tenn.) expressed unequivocal support of Israel and declared that the energy crisis will not change the United States foreign policy. “I know the people of this country,” Baker said. “The foreign policy of the United States will not be distorted. We will not be blackmailed by economic sanctions.”
Addressing the National Jubilee Dinner of the American Society for Technion-Israel Institute of Technology at the New York Americana Hotel last night, Baker also said he fully supported the Nixon-Kissinger policy in the Middle East and the way they handled the crisis “when another great power,” namely the Soviet Union, wanted to intervene in the war “and even possibly destroy Israel.”
Baker, a member of the Senate Watergate Committee, said that he admires and supports efforts by Nixon and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger “to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East,” and said that the Administration, in supporting Israel, “acted wisely and bravely” in behalf of freedom and dignity.
At a press conference earlier in the evening, Baker asserted that the energy crisis the U.S. now faces is due to a failure of an energy policy during the last 10 years. He also stated that the U.S. will not permit either economic or military disparity to develop between Israel and her Arab neighbors. Nonetheless, he added. “We are not going to put Israel in a position to dominate the Arab nations.”
More than 1600 prominent American businessmen and Jewish communal leaders gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Technion, one of the largest scientific and technical institutes in the world. Fifteen Nobel Prize scientists joined the guests in inaugurating the establishment of the Samuel Neaman Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology at Technion. The Israeli-born founder Samuel Neaman was guest of honor at the dinner.
Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of the International Board of the Technion, told the audience that 42 Technion students were killed in the Yom Kippur War in addition to some staff members. President Nixon and Sen. Henry Jackson sent telegrams of congratulations to Technion on its anniversary.
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.
