Jack Spitzer, president of B’nai B’rith, has asked President Carter to cancel the Administration’s support for a $90 million grant to Syria in economic aid and a contribution of $190,000 to the United Nations.
Spitzer declared, in a telegram to Carter, that “with so much of your Administration’s energies invested in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East, and with the opportunities opened by your magnificent achievement at Camp David, it seems so distressingly inconsistent” for the Administration “to be rewarding the very elements in the Arab world which seek to subvert that achievement by keeping the region in a state of turmoil and conflict.”
Spitzer noted that Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D.NY) and Rep. Lester Wolff (D.NY) and others had sought to delete the $190,000 contribution to the UN. He said that the Carter Administration nevertheless was “continuing to help finance the destructive work of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinians and the special unit created within the UN Secretariat to propagandize for the Palestine Liberation Organization.”
The B’nai B’rith leader declared that “we strongly believe that both of these expenditures not only run counter to the best interests of the United States but create an ambiguity about which Arab elements the United States wants to encourage.” Spitzer said “we therefore call on you to reverse your policy on these matters and demonstrate that this country does not intend to subsidize those who work against us and the cause of Middle East peace.”
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.
