Jackson Says U.S. Must Insist on Direct Talks Between Israel, Arabs As Way to Settle Mideast Conflic

Sen, Henry M. Jackson (D. Wash.) declared last night that the “over-arching principle” in the peace offensive of the Arab-Israeli conflict is “a change of heart” by the Arabs toward Israel. The United States, he said must insist on direct face-to- face negotiations between them. Jackson also declared his belief that President-elect Jimmy Carter will “fully implement” the Jackson-Vanik amendment in the Trade Reform Act.

Jackson made these statements in an address at the annual Israel Bond Organization dinner at Temple Emanu-El in Miami Beach where the David Ben Gurion Award was conferred upon Sol and Goldie Goldstein, leaders of the temple, for their many communal activities during the past three decades. Sol Goldstein was influential in the formation of the jewelry division of the Combined Jewish Appeal. Goldie Goldstein is secretary of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and president of the Federation Women’s Division.

In one of the most outspoken analysis of international developments since the Presidential election by a member of Congress, Jackson declared: “Direct negotiations between Israel and Egypt has been and remains the key to a settlement in the Middle East. If all the talk is to lead anywhere it must lead to the bargaining table, for it is there and only there–not in the United Nations, not in the pages of Time and Newsweek–that hope for a solution may be found. It is high time that we join with Israel in supporting their challenge to years of a peace rhetoric by insisting on direct, face-to-face negotiations.”

NEGOTIATIONS, NOT INTERVIEWS

In the final analysis, Jackson continued, “the Arab refusal to enter into direct negotiations–and not their soothing interviews with Western leaders and journalists– that tells the story. When negotiations do get underway they should be guided by one over-arching principle: that there must be a change of heart in the Middle East and not simply a change of borders.”

Noting that Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev is now seeking “free access to the American market for Soviet products and a blank check on the U.S. Treasury to finance the importation of high technology from the United States.” Jackson said his “Chanuka message” to Brezhnev is that the American electorate has said it does “not want to continue the Ford-Kissinger practice of negotiating one-sided deals with the Soviet Union.”