The Carter Administration is on notice that withholding the delivery of aircraft to Israel, should Congress block the transfer of planes to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, would provoke the worst battle between the Legislative and Executive branches in three years.
At the same time, Rep. Lee Hamilton (D.Ind.), a key Administration supporter in the House, suggested to the State Department publicly that it curtail U.S. financial assistance to Israel as a means to cause the Israeli government to be “flexible” on the settlements issue.
Rep. Stephen Solarz (D.NY) declared yesterday at a hearing on security supporting assistance for Israel by the House International Relations subcommittee for the Middle East, that should the Administration have the “chutzpah” to reject planes for Israel “it would make for the most serious confrontation between Congress and the Administration” since the 1975 struggle between them over arms for Turkey. Congress won that battle.
“I hope you will persuade the President to come to his senses in this regard,” Solarz told Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Nicholas Veliotes who presented the aid program for Israel to the subcommittee. The New York Congressman emphasized that he saw “no justification for cancelling the Israeli sale” of 15 F-15s and 70 F-16s “simply because the Congress decided against the Administration’s proposals to deliver 50 F-5Es to Egypt or 60 F-15s to Saudi Arabia.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance had told a Congressional committee last Friday that the Administration would cancel the sale to all three countries if Congress rejected any part of it. Solarz pointed out the sale to Israel is in response to a U.S. commitment to Israel is in 1973. “I assure you,” Solarz told Veliotes, “Congress won’t throw in the towel” if the Administration dropped the sale to Israel. “There are people here who have ways to make the Congressional mandate felt.”
REJECTS PRESSURING ISRAEL
A few minutes later, Veliotes told Hamilton, the subcommittee chairman, that “it would be counter-productive” to withhold aid funds from Israel to attempt to cause a shift by the Begin government on the settlements issue. “It would encourage the opposite behavior,” Veliotes added, from “those forces in Israel who felt they were being subjected to this kind of pressure.”
Hamilton had asked Veliotes what the “consequences” would be for withholding aid “to encourage flexibility” on the settlements and suggested that since “we have not gotten anywhere so far” by not withholding aid, “maybe the other approach” should be tried. Veliotes suggested the subcommittee wait for a policy statement from Israel’s government on the matter.
In a previous round of questioning on the current political process in the Middle East, Veliotes told Solarz that the Carter Administration does not give aid from a negotiating standpoint but provides “generous assistance” to help Israel’s economic well being and “to encourage Israel and its people to make difficult decisions.” He said he would “not endorse” reductions to make Israel more flexible in the negotiations.
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