40 Jewish Leaders Confer for 2 Hours with Sisco, Atherton on Mideast, U.S. -israel Relations

The concerns of the American-Jewish community over the current status of U.S. -Israeli relations were expressed here today in a two-hour exchange of questions and answers between 40 American-Jewish leaders representing virtually every major national Jewish organization and two top level State Department officials.

The officials, Joseph J. Sisco, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and Alfred E. Atherton. Assistant Secretary of State in charge of Middle Eastern Affairs, met with the group at the request of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The group included the American Jewish Committee which is not a member of the Conference of Presidents.

Rabbi Israel Miller, chairman of the Presidents Conference, who spoke to reporters in the State Department lobby after the meeting, said that as a result of the exchange, he personally believed that the “climate is better now” between the U.S. and Israel than it was last March 22 when the second-stage talks between Israel and Egypt conducted by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, were suspended. But, Miller cautioned, “we are in for a long difficult period” in the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

Miller told reporters that the bulk of the questions at the meeting and Sisco’s responses were related to “the malaise of the Jewish community–indeed of the entire American community–over the pressures being put on Israel by overt and off-the-record remarks” by Administration sources, the climate created by these remarks and the linkage of military equipment to the Administration’s reassessment of its Middle East polices “which we felt ought not to be.” He observed that there have not been “many positive words regarding Israel in recent weeks by Administration spokesmen.”

ENCOURAGEMENT AND QUESTION MARKS

Miller said that the State Department officials attending the meeting had said “certain things that encouraged us” but also left “some question marks.” He said the positive aspects were the reiteration of the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and the special relationship between Israel and the U.S. Less positive was the outcome of the reassessment and the failure to state the quantities of aid Israel would receive from the U.S.

According to Miller, Sisco, who is chairman of the group conducting the policy review ordered by President Ford, stressed that the U.S. is committed to Israel’s security and survival and that he understood the sensitivity among Israel’s sympathizers here when the Administration speaks only of Israel’s survival without mentioning security.

Miller said that Sisco told the group that while the U.S. would like to return to the step-by-step negotiating process, it looked as if the option will be the Geneva conference. No date was mentioned. Sisco warned, according to Miller, that a flash point will occur in the Middle East this July when the newly extended mandates for the United Nations peace-keeping forces expire. The mandate for the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) on the Egyptian front was extended for three months and that of the Disengagement Observers Force (UNDOF) on the Syrian front for two months–meaning that they will both expire at about the same time.

Another flash point will be in August unless there is some progress toward a peace settlement, not necessarily at Geneva but in terms of some kind of development, Sisco said, according to Miller.

AID TO ISRAEL DISCUSSED

Regarding U.S. military aid to Israel, Sisco told the Jewish leaders, Miller said, that aid was not the question; the question is the amount, and, as always, we have to wait until other factors in the reassessment are concluded. Sisco also said, according to Miller, that the reason the U.S. prefers the step-by-step approach to a Mideast settlement is that it does not want to tackle the Palestinian question at this time.

Sisco said the U.S. was not thinking of the Palestinians in terms of statehood, but the problem will have to be dealt with, though he didn’t say how, Miller reported. He said that Sisco acknowledged that the passage of Israeli cargoes through the Suez Canal was part of the January 1974 disengagement agreement concluded between Israel and Egypt. But Sisco evaded the question of whether Israeli cargoes would indeed be permitted through the waterway when it is reopened June 5, Miller said.

MEETING HAD INPUT VALUE

He observed that today’s meeting was important because two high State Department officials had the opportunity to hear from representatives of the American Jewish leadership the concerns of the Jewish community. “We feel that not only U.S. support should be given to Israel in general terms but spelled out in terms everyone could understand–the kind of help politically, militarily and economically to Israel,” he said. Miller noted that Sisco indicated that he had gotten a “clear message” and that the meeting had an input value for the current reassessment. According to Miller; the two-hour session was conducted information and in a very friendly atmosphere.