Administration is Urged to Make Clear Its Support of Israel

Three U.S. Senators joined Jewish leaders last night in demanding that the Reagan Administration make clear its support for the security of Israel as the Jewish State demonstrates it is keeping its commitment to its peace treaty with Egypt.

“I don’t think we should leave any room for anyone anywhere to believe that our dedication to the security, to the territorial integrity and the independence of Israel is not sound and sure and solid,” Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd (D. W. Va.) declared to several hundred persons at a meeting at Congregation Adas Israel.

“We must especially at this time make sure that the world understands that Israel is our friend, we’re their’s and that our commitment which was made several years ago is as firm today as it was when it was first made.”

Sens. Henry Jackson (D. Wash.) and David Durenberger (R. Minn.) also addressed the “National Leadership Conference of Solidarity with Israel,” organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in cooperation with the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council and the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington.

Byrd stressed that Israel, which will move out of the Sinai as scheduled Sunday, is “keeping her word to the letter.” But he said it is “paying a heavy economic price.” He said he has urged the Administration, which has proposed providing Israel with $300 million in additional military aid for the 1983 fiscal year, to make that sum a grant and not a loan as the Administration proposes.

EGYPT MUST LIVE UP TO PEACE TREATY

Jackson stressed that the Administration must make it clear to Egypt that it, too, must live up to the peace treaty. It is “very important that our government make clear that we expect Egypt, with Israel honoring the Camp David agreements that they (Egypt) must honor it, they must keep it … and they must not join up with the enemies of Camp David,” Jackson said.

Durenberger said that before the Senate vote on the sale of AWACS and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia he had tried to convince President Reagan that the sale was wrong because it would be perceived as undermining U.S. support for Israel. He said he still hopes to change the Administration’s policy of providing arms to anti-Israel states.

OPPOSING ARMS TO JORDAN IS PRIORITY ITEM

Byrd said that he told Secretary of State Alexander Haig that if the Administration proposes selling to Jordan F-16 jets “or even F-5G jets” or Hawk mobile missiles “we will have AWACS all over again.” All three Senators voted against the sale of AWACS last year. Yehude Hellman, executive director of the Presidents Conference, said that the Presidents Conference will make opposition to the sale of arms to Jordan a priority item on the Jewish agenda for 1982. He said such a sale would mean “a grave threat to the security of Israel and an alarming peril to the cause of peace and the long strategic interests of our own country.”

Howard Squadron, chairman of the Presidents Conference, said the meeting last night was to demand that the Administration give Israel “full credit” for its scheduled withdrawal from Sinai a move which he said is “a terrible gamble with Israeli lives for peace.”

Squadron also said an effort must be made to “try to prevent this Administration from joining in what has become a worldwide exercise of blaming Israel, placing pressures on Israel, demanding concessions from Israel, because others will not perform as Egypt has. Israel gets the blame for what others will not do.” Squadron said that a demand must be made to “give Israel credit for what it does do and stop blaming Israel for what it does not do.”

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, scored what he called an attempt to differentiate between Israel and its Premier, Menachem Begin. He said the “democratically elected” Begin “articulates the genuine consensus of the overwhelming majority of Israeli people.” He said that Begin was being judged by unfair standards in which he was blamed for actions that were excused when committed by Arab leaders. Schindler declared that Begin “has but one desire, and that is to bring peace to his people.”

JEWISH LEADERS MEET WITH BUSH

Before the meeting last night, a Presidents Conference group of 75 persons met with Vice President George Bush for an hour at his official residence. Presidents Conference delegations met with Sen. Charles Percy (R. III.), chairman of the Foreigh Relations Committee, yesterday and were scheduled to meet today with Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R. Tenn.) and Israeli Ambassador Moshe Arens.

Bush told the Presidents Conference group that the AWACS sale serves to strengthen the role of the Saudi regime as a “moderating” force in the area. This position was strongly rejected by Squadron and Byrd in their speeches last night.

Bush also repeated that both he and Reagan had been deeply offended by questioning of the loyalty of American Jews during the AWACS debate. Bush said he was “not convinced that the issue had been laid to rest” and said both he and the President would continue to reject any attempts to question the loyalty of any groups that challenge the Administration’s policy.

Bush also promised that the question of Soviet Jewry will always be on the agenda when Administration officials meet with Soviet leaders. He said he would urge that the question of the right of Jews to emigrate be raised during the forthcoming U.S.-Soviet talks in Vienna on the possible resumption of U.S. wheat sales.