The AFL-CIO Executive Council demanded, in a resolution adopted here, that the United States government do nothing, in its expanding relationships with the Arab countries, “that would in any way diminish America’s friendship for and support of Israel” and that U.S. aid to Arab countries “must be of a nature that will not increase their military potential and encourage a new aggression against Israel.”
The labor leaders also declared that “the breach of the cease-fire and the continuous fighting which has been launched repeatedly by Syria in the past two months has had the all-out support of the Soviet Union and its satellites.” This “aggressive course by the Kremlin provokes tension and conflicts” and “is the very opposite of detente and sets new cruel barriers to peace,” the resolution added. The resolution declared that hopes for more peaceful and stable conditions “in this war-ridden area” could be achieved “only if the parties recognize and respect the sovereignty of each other and create conditions for living together.”
DISAPPOINTMENT OVER U.S. VOTE IN UN
The labor leaders also said that “Syrian aggression” during the Yom Kippur War “painfully demonstrated, as if more proof were needed, the acute threats under which the Israeli people live.” Warning that “no genuine settlement can be achieved under such threats,” the delegates added that “secure and defensible borders and a strong Israel are the best answer to such threats.” The resolution added that any pressure, “regardless of its source,” which might violate or run counter to this principle, must be categorically rejected.
The delegates expressed “deep disappointment and disgust” over the vote of the United States in the United Nations Security Council on April 25 which condemned Israel “for a retaliatory act on bases of terrorists who perpetrated the massacre mostly of women and children in the workers suburb of Kiryat Shemona.” The statement said the Security Council resolution, “which did not even mention the massacre,” was “utterly unfair and inhuman” and would “encourage the worst crimes against humanity.”
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