Sen. Lloyd M. Bentsen (D. Texas), who last week announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, called today upon the Administration to “speak up now” in public protest against the serious economic threat to Israel posed by the Arab economic boycott. In remarks prepared for delivery tonight at the 67th annual award dinner of Bnai Zion, the American Fraternal Zionist Organization, Bentsen stated, “Never has Israel been more threatened–politically, militarily and economically.”
He said there seem to be too few in this country who realize the dimensions of the economic threat to Israel. “But our own experience with inflation, recession and the Arab oil boycott should serve to emphasize the fact that an economic threat can be as dangerous as a military threat to a nation’s natural security,” Bentsen stated.
He said that of great concern to him, in particular, “is the widening Arab economic boycott against Israel. I believe that it is high time the United States protested publicly and formally what amounts to a state of economic belligerence. No military or political settlement will bring peace to the Middle East or insure Israel’s survival unless there is also a cessation of the economic warfare being waged against Israel by the Arab nations.”
INTENTIONS MUST BE PROVEN BY ACTIONS
Bentsen’s address, released earlier in the day, was scheduled for delivery to an estimated 1600 people at the New York Hilton Hotel who gathered tonight to pay tribute to Herman Z. Quittman, Bnai Zion’s executive vice-president and national secretary who was the recipient of the 1975 America-Israel Friendship Medal for his 40 yeas of service and in recognition of his contributions to the furtherance of the Zionist movement, the cause of Israel and the promotion of American-Israeli friendship. New York State Supreme Court Justice Abraham J. Multer, president of Bnai Zion, presented the medal to Quittman.
Bentsen, who urged the U.S. government to “speak up now, and address itself not just to the military situation but also to the equally serious economic threat against Israel,” also urged the Arab nations, in particular Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, “to make a concrete showing of good faith,” Asserting that “promises of non-belligerency are meaningless,” and noting that history is full of wars originating in non-aggression pacts, the Senator declared:
“Let President Sadat prove his good intentions by developing an economic relationship with Israel. Why not start slowly, gradually with cultural exchange, with educational exchange? Why not continue with Cairo-Tel Aviv air service, a lifting of customs restrictions against those who have travelled to Israel?”
During the medal award ceremony, messages of greetings to Quittman came from President Ford, Vice-President Nelson A. Rockefeller, Israeli President Ephraim Katzir, Premier Yitzhak Rabin and New York Governor Hugh L. Carey. In response, Quittman noted that throughout the current century the cry for freedom on the part of the Jewish people has struck a responsive chord in the hearts of decent and moral people everywhere only “when our own people themselves had first taken the initiative and rose in massive action to obtain justice.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
