Ajcommittee Survey Finds Catholics More Sympathetic to Israel Than Protestants

A survey by the American Jewish Committee has found clerical and lay leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in America to be more sympathetic toward Israel than American Protestant denominations. The results of the survey were based on a study of the public positions of Catholic and Protestant leaders following Israel’s reprisal raid on Beirut Airport last Dec. 28 after a terrorist attack on an El Al airliner at Athens two days before.

The study, prepared by Mrs. Judith H. Banki of the AJCommittee’s inter-religious affairs department, noted that “on the whole, Catholic leaders and the official diocesan press are more sympathetically disposed to Israel and more likely to balance their specific criticism of Israel’s behavior with parallel criticisms of the Arab nations. The official Protestant press-and the statements of most Protestant institutional leaders–have been less favorably disposed to Israel and have seen the plight of the Arab refugees as the overriding issue in the Middle East and have placed primary responsibility for the plight of the refugees on Israel.” The AJCommittee findings showed that official Catholic statements have called on both the Israelis and Arabs to negotiate directly with each other. Leaders of the National Council of Churches, the Protestant coordinating body, wired their gratitude to former President Lyndon B. Johnson and former Ambassador J. Russell Wiggins for the United States’ condemnation of Israel’s Beirut raid, the study noted.