Jewish Organizations Schedule an Anti-weinberger Rally

Several Jewish organizations have announced that they will hold a protest rally opposite the New York Hilton in Manhattan this Friday from noon to I pm. to protest Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s appearance at a luncheon sponsored by the American Jewish Committee as part of its 77th annual meeting.

Matthew Maryles, chairman of the National Council of Young Israel, which together with Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and the Jewish Mobilization Committee is co-sponsoring the rally, said Weinberger “has been identified with many of the actions of the Reagan Administration against Israel.”

The actions, Maryles said, included “the cancellations of the strategic cooperation agreement, the embargo on American- built arms ordered by Israel, the sale of AWACS and other sophisticated American weapons to Israel’s enemies, and, most recently, obstruction of critical trade agreements needed for the development of Israel’s next generation of military aircraft, the Lavie.”

THE GOAL OF THE RALLY

The goal of the demonstration, Maryles noted, “is to reaffirm our conviction that Israel is America’s most dependable and important ally in the Middle East, and that the Reagan Administration efforts to exert such pressures on Israel run counter to America’s own foreign policy, strategic and security interests.”

A joint statement by Herbert Zweibon, chairman of AFSI, and Rabbi Avraham Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, N.Y. and a member of AFSI’s executive board, who is coordinating the rally, said that Weinberger “has become a symbol of America’s betrayal of Israel.”

The statement noted that Weinberger “has played a key role in cancelling strategic agreements with Israel, holding up the delivery of planes to Israel, promoting the Reagan plan, which Israel describes as a blueprint for suicide, and provoking U.S. marine confrontations with the Israel Defense Force.”