Candidates Criticize Carter

President Carter’s Middle East policy was criticized by both the Democratic and Republican candidates for the United States Senate from New Jersey. Bill Bradley, the Democratic candidate, and Jeffrey Bell, his Republican opponent, are seeking the seat now Held by Clifford Case (R.NJ). They appeared in a debate Friday conducted by an ad hoc committee made up of representatives of various New Jersey Jewish organizations.

Bradley said that Israel’s security was “non-negotiable” and said he viewed “in a negative and alarming way” Carter’s attempts to “push Israel to make concessions.” Bradley stressed, “It is not the role of the U.S. to push Israel to make concessions which the government and citizens of Israel see as against their interests.”

Bell criticised the Administration’s failure “to get a prior commitment from Saudi Arabia to isolate the PLO” before the U.S. proceeded with the sale of F-15s to the Saudians. “The sales should be stopped until Saudi Arabia cuts off aid to the PLO, “he said.

Bell, who defeated Case in the Republican primary last month, agreed with Bradley that boundaries and the future of Jerusalem should be decided by Israel and the Arab countries through negations. Bell said he believed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat “is interested in peace” as shown by his repudiation of the terrorist activities of the PLO and his growing apprehension about Soviet influence in the Mideast. But Bradley said that after his initial peace overtures, Sadat has been “so intransigent, so negative that I have serious reservations about Mr. Sadat as a man of peace.”

Bell was also critical of Carter for seeming to pull back from his strong support of human rights in the Soviet Union. Bell said the President’s latest statement, last Thursday night in his press conference, in which he said he planned no further action against the USSR only encouraged the Soviet leaders in their repression of Jews. Bell supported an end to detente. But Bradley said he favors the withdrawal of some technological assistance to the USSR, but he believes the strategic arms limitation talks should continue.

The debate was organized by Dr. Jay Blum of Jersey City and was chaired by Joel Shain, the former Mayor of Orange and present chairman of the New Jersey State Banking Commission. The purpose of the debate, according to the organizers, was “to learn the candidates’ positions on the Middle East and to sensitize them to the concerns of the Jewish community.”