American Jews were told to cease making President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger the “scape goats” for their concern and frustrations about Israel’s future and the impasse in peace prospects in the Middle East, Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, yesterday told members of the Board of Trustees, meeting here that the time has come to “cease the black mood and doom and put an end to over-reaction and yielding to despair” by so many “of our people.”
He said that “both the President and Mr. Kissinger still represent the only statesmen capable of moving Mideast negotiations off dead center at the present stage. To vilify them and destroy their diplomatic position is a disservice to peace and to Israel itself.”
He attacked Jewish extremist groups like the Jewish Defense League which have taken this position as “hysterical infantilism which confuses public opinion and is counter-productive for both Israel and the Jewish community.”
Rabbi Schindler said he felt that President Ford’s talks with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin “might put both Egypt and Israel back on the road towards a second stage peace agreement.” However, he cautioned Ford and Kissinger not be “one-sided” by constantly pressing Israel to “come forth with new ideas and concessions, in my estimation the Israelis have provided sufficient options for a new settlement with Egypt,” he said.
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.
