25 Jewish Organizations Urge Washington to Adhere to Policy on Negotiated Peace

The leadership of 25 American Jewish organizations called on the United States Government yesterday to “adhere to its policy of advocating a negotiated peace among the parties directly involved” in the Arab-Israel conflict in order to serve “the best interests of our country, as well as the interests of the entire Middle East.” The appeal was contained in a resolution unanimously adopted at the close of the National Leadership Conference on Peace in the Middle East, a two-day gathering convened here by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and attended by over 600 delegates.

The resolution was approved by three non-members of the Conference, the American Jewish Committee, Synagogue Council of America and the North American Jewish Youth Council, which attended as full participants along with the 22 regular Conference member organizations. The resolution will be presented by a delegation of Jewish leaders to Secretary of State William P. Rogers at a State Department meeting, to be held at his invitation within a few days.

Rejecting an imposed settlement, and “illusory guarantees,” the resolution warned against a “Franco-Soviet initiative to produce a Big Power formula for a political settlement.” It said such a formula “would absolve the Arab governments from the necessity of entering into negotiations with Israel which alone can achieve a genuine peace treaty that would settle all outstanding issues between the countries directly involved.” It stated that the signatories were convinced “that any attempt to replace such a freely negotiated peace between Israel and the Arab states by any substitute would encourage the intransigence of the Arab governments in rejecting all constructive proposals for negotiations leading to an agreed and lasting peace” and “would tend to globalize a regional conflict creating the danger of Big Power involvement.”

The resolution said further, “We are confident that American statesmanship will not yield to current Soviet maneuvers intended to strengthen the Soviet position in the Mediterranean and ensure complete Soviet domination of the Middle East…Such a development cannot be regarded as consonant with the national interest of the U.S.”

The Conference’s consensus saw in the recent Arab intensification of attacks against Israel and assaults upon its civilian population and El Al airlines “a strategy…to conjure up the false threat of an imminent conflagration, thus creating an artificial atmosphere of acute crisis and panic.” The resolution said this was strategy aimed at stimulating the Big Four to “join forces to bring about Israel’s withdrawal” from territories it seized during the Six-Day War.

Observers regarded the assembly here as historic, noting that it was attended by “the most representative assembly of American Jewish leadership” since a 1942 conference that issued the “Biltmore program” calling for establishment of Palestine as a Jewish commonwealth. In addition to the 25 national organizations, scores of community councils across the country took part in the sessions.

The resolution was adopted without major controversy–“one indication of the new unity of the American Jewish community as it rallies to defend Israel in the political confrontation that is expected to be a major outgrowth of the Four Power Mideast talks,” said Presidents Conference chairman Rabbi Herschel Schacter, Israel’s UN Ambassador Yosef Tekoah told the concluding session that “Israel must brace itself for a crucial period–not only in terms of terrorist activity but in terms of the pressure from Great Powers to accept an imposed settlement. In the period ahead, we count on the understanding of the U.S. Jewish community.” The conference plans to undertake an “educational campaign” to bring the views of the assemblage, which it regards as a cross-section of American Jewry, to the U.S. public.