The platform the Democratic National Convention is scheduled to adopt Tuesday praises the Carter Administration for helping bringing about an Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement and pledges to continue efforts to achieve a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement through the Camp David framework:
“We must persevere with the Middle East peace process,” the platform declares. “There is no viable alternative. We can welcome initiatives from other countries so long as they contribute to the Camp David process that is leading toward a comprehensive peace in that region. But we will oppose efforts that undermine Camp David while offering no viable alternative. Our goal is to see the achievement of a comprehensive peace for all parties.
The proposed platform also calls for moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, supports continued military aid to Israel and urges efforts to increase the number of Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union.
The Middle East planks as well as the entire foreign policy section of the platform is not expected to cause any controversy at the convention since it is a result of compromises between supporters of President Carter and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts when the platform was adopted by the platform committee in June.
OPEN OR CLOSED CONVENTION BATTLE
Kennedy, who will be speaking to the convention Tuesday night, a break with the tradition that candidates do not appear before the assembled delegates until after the balloting for the nomination for the Presidency, plans to devote his remarks to the economy. He views the speech as an effort to get changes in what he believes is a conservative platform and as a last ditch effort to convince the delegates to abandon Carter, who now has more than enough votes for renomination, and name him the Democratic candidate to face Republican Ronald Reagan and independent John Anderson in the fall.
However, Kennedy’s hopes depend first on tomorrow’s opening session at which delegates will vote whether to maintain the rule on whether delegates are bound to vote on the first ballot for the candidate for whom they were elected in the primaries, the “open” or “closed convention battle.
Carter, who is now at Camp David, will not come to New York until Wednesday just prior to the Presidential balloting scheduled for that night. Most political observers believe that Carter, in his nationally-televised press conference last Monday night on the involvement of his brother, Billy Carter, with the Libyan government derailed the move toward an open convention and that his delegates will stick with his position that they are bound by the primary vote.
PROBLEMS RAISED BY BILL CARTER
But, the head of Carter’s New York State campaign, Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo, while praising Carter’s performance generally in the press conference, said he “regretted” the President did not “specifically repudiate the anti-Semitic comments” made by Bill Carter.
He said Billy Carter’s statements make the President’s problems in the Jewish community worse. He said he had hoped the President “would specifically say ‘this is anti-Semitic, and it is wrong. I disassociate myself. I deplore that kind of thing wherever it occurs, and especially, out of the mouth of my own brother.'”
Cuomo said he senses on “outrage” and “a fear” in the Jewish community over the Billy Carter affair. “But I don’t sense that in the non-Jewish community and that’s regrettable,” he added. (Related story on U.S.-Libya relations, P.3.)
Challenges to the platform may also come from women who want support of the use of government funds for abortions and a denial of the Democratic Party’s financial support and technical assistance to candidates who do not support the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Peace in the Middle East is listed as a major objective in the foreign policy section of the proposed platform. It stresses that this objective is one of both “morality and national security.” The platform declares that the U.S. “feels a profound moral obligation to sustain and assure the security of Israel. That is why our relationship with Israel is, in most respects, a unique one. Israel is the single democracy, the most stable government, the most strategic asset and our closest ally in the region.
“To fulfill this imperative we must move toward peace in the Middle East. Without peace there is a growing prospect, indeed inevitability, that this region will become radicalized, susceptible to foreign intrusion, and possibly involved in another war. Thus, peace in the Middle East also is vital for our national security.”
The long Middle East section describes Carter’s efforts along with Israeli Premier Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Assure Sedat in achieving a peace treaty. “In sum, this Democratic Administration has done more to achieve Israel’s dream of peace than any other Administration in thirty years,” the platform declares.
Noting that the U.S. is a full partner in the autonomy talks between Egypt and Israel, the platform stresses that “It is recognized that the Democratic Administration has to proceed with special care and sensitivity resulting from its deep engagement in the delicate process of promoting a wider peace for Israel.” Carter’s supporters on the platform committee had originally wanted this sentence to be included in the paragraph on moving the U.S. Embassy, but in a compromise with the Kennedy forces it was placed in an earlier section of the Mideast platform.
ELEMENTS OF PLATFORM’S MIDEAST PLANK
The platform declared that the U.S. has strengthened its commitment to Israel. “Nearly half of oil U.S. aid to Israel since its creation as a sovereign state – more than $10 billion – has been requested during the last 3-1/2 years,” the platform notes. “We provide Israel with modern military equipment and we fully support Israel’s efforts to create a just and lasting peace with its Arab neighbors.”
The platform outlines the principles that U.S. policy should continue to be guided by as:
“UN Security Council Resolution 242, unchanged, and the Camp David accords are the basis for peace in the Middle East. We support Israel’s security and will continue to provide military and economic aid to that end.” A similar pledge is made in the defense section of the platform.
“We pledge not to provide Israel’s potential enemies with sophisticated offensive equipment that could endanger the security of Israel,” the Mideast section continues. “Jerusalem should remain forever undivided, with free access to the holy places for people of all faiths.
“We oppose creation of an independent Palestinian state. We will not negotiate with or recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization, unless and until it accepts Israel’s right to exist and UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. It is also long post time for an end to all terrorism and other acts of violence against Israel.
“We have not and will not use our aid to Israel as a bargaining tool; and we will never permit oil policies to influence our policy toward peace or our support for Israel.
“As stated in the 1976 platform, the Democratic Party recognizes and supports ‘the established status of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, with free access to all its holy places provided to all faiths. As a symbol of this stand, the U.S. Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Elsewhere in the Middle East, we support the improvement of relations with moderate Arab states. We support the independence, sovereignty and integrity of Lebanon. We call upon all states in the region to support the historic efforts of Israel and Egypt to build a comprehensive peace.”
The Mideast section also pledges that the U.S. will take “needed measures to protect American interests in the Persian Gulf,” condemns the government of Iran for the holding of American hostages and stresses the need to “end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.”
PROMISE ON SOVIET JEWISH EMIGRATION
Another sections of the platform, a promise is made that “the Democratic Administration will also seek to reverse the recent sharp downturn in Soviet Jewish emigration and to obtain the release of dissidents now detained in the Soviet Union, including 41 members of the Helsinki Watch Groups who are in Soviet prisons, labor camps and banishment for their human rights activity.”
In the human rights section, the platform says “We support measures designed to restrict trade with the Soviet Union until such time as Soviet emigration policy is made fair and non-restrictive,” an apparent reference to the Jackson/Vanik Amendment to the U.S. Trade Act. The platform also supports “ratification of the Genocide Convention and the International Covenants on Human Rights as soon as possible.”
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.
