At the UJA Young Leadership Conference: a Bill to Reduce Israel’s Debt to the U.S. Was Postponed in

Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.) asserted Tuesday that a bill that would have reduced Israel’s debt to the United States by $3.5 billion was postponed in the Senate last December in the wake of the arrest of Jonathan Pollard for spying for Israel.

A bill that would have passed was withdrawn within 24 hours of Pollard’s arrest because “American public opinion shifted dramatically,” Biden told the nearly 3,000 young Jewish leaders attending the closing session of the United Jewish Appeal’s Fifth National Young Leadership Conference.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Daniel Inouye (D. Ha.) and Robert Kasten (R. Wisc.), would have reduced the interest Israel pays to five percent, about half of the current rate of interest. At the time, supporters of the bill said it was with drawn because of the budget crunch caused by the Gramm-Rudman Act.

Biden charged that for the past two Administrations there has been a lack of “a comprehensive foreign policy” for the Middle East. He said this has allowed American public opinion to move out of focus and thereby become susceptible to reducing its commitment to Israel.

CHANGING PERCEPTION OF ISRAEL

In addition, Biden noted that where Israel was once considered the “David” of the Middle East, it is now viewed as the “Goliath.” Biden also claimed that while a former generation of Jews and non-Jews viewed Israel as a moral issue because of the Holocaust, younger Americans do not.

He said the U.S. must announce that Israel is an ally and treat it like one, keeping any differences in private and not making public criticism of Israel.

Biden stressed that the strategic importance of Israel, to the United States should also be pointed out. We don’t apologize for our $100 billion commitment to NATO,” he said. “Why the hell should we apologize for a $3 billion commitment to Israel.”

At the morning session, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D. Mass.) called on King Hussein of Jordan, now that he has abandoned “his nefarious pact” with the Palestine Liberation Organization, to negotiate peace with Israel. “The time has come for King Hussein to stop talking about peace in the abstract and start talking with Israel directly and at the conference table,” Kennedy said.

He said the U.S. should abandon proposals to sell arms to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. “Instead of trafficking recklessly in numbers like F-15’s, F-16’s and F-20’s, the administration should be tirelessly pursuing the two most important numbers for the Middle East — United Nations (Security Council) Resolutions 242 and 338.”

Speaking about Soviet Jewry, Kennedy noted that during his recent visit to the Soviet Union he was given a promise that 25 persons would be allowed to emigrate. But he said their release and that of Anatoly Shcharansky “in no way diminishes our demands that thousands more must be permitted to leave.”

Kennedy said in his talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev he found no indication of any movement on human rights. He said when President Reagan meets Gorbachev again and makes the case for arms control “he must also make the case for justice, for human rights and for an end to religious persecution by the Kremlin.”