Solon Urges Reagan to Ship F-16s to Israel, Halt Arms Sales to Arabs

Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.), called on President Reagan today “to read the message of Congress” and ship F-16 jet fighter-bombers to Israel. He also urged the President to halt all arms sales to Arab nations in the Middle East and declared that the U.S. should begin to treat Israel “as an ally and brother and not wash dirty laundry in public.”

Biden, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke at the luncheon session of the 83rd national convention of the Zionist Organization of America here. He said American public opinion is beginning to understand what is at stake in the Middle East, “that oil is not a weapon, that the Israelis are the ones who have made concessions in Lebanon ” and that it is the Syrians, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Lebanese government which are “intransigent. “

RESNICK NEW ZOA PRESIDENT

Alleck Resnick, a Baltimore lawyer and active Jewish community leader, was elected president of the ZOA at the convention’s closing session tonight, succeeding Ivan Novick of Pittsburgh. Resnick is a member of the executive of the World Union of General Zionists and since 1978 a member of the General Council of the World Zionist Organization. Before his election to the presidency of the ZOA he served as chairman of its national executive committee.

NEWEST FORM OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Addressing the ZOA convention Friday, Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, charged that the Soviet Union and the PLO are the “forefront of the newest form of anti-Semitism which accuses Jews of being in league with the forces of evil.”

He said that “the most important assumption binding the Cubans, Vietnamese, the Sandinists of Nicaragua, the PLO and the Soviet together is the theme that the United States is the incarnation of evil” and that groups and nations such as Israel, associated with the U.S. or sympathetic to it are “equally wicked.”

Abrams observed that the Soviets assert that “Zionism is the enemy of all mankind.” In this, he said, we are dealing with a great threat to the survival of Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union, the survival of Israel and indeed to the survival of freedom in the world.”

URGES U.S. PRESSURE ON SOVIETS

Also addressing the 500 convention delegates Friday, Sen, Arlen Specter (R. Pa.) declared that when the U.S. puts sufficient pressure on the Soviets so that they must respond for their own self-interest, progress will be made in the cause of Soviet Jews.

Referring to the Middle East, Specter described Israel as having liberated Lebanon and said it was “unmitigated gall” that the Lebanese government should refuse to recognize Israel. He said that until there is recognition of Israel’s right to exist, “how can anyone call on Israel to make concessions.”