Richard Cardinal Cushing, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, criticized the Nixon Administration today for changing its policy toward Israel. The Cardinal warned that United States efforts to seek a Middle East settlement in collaboration with Russia, Britain and France, “may end in calamity for Israel.” He called for “face-to-face negotiations” between Israel and the Arabs as the only effective way to achieve real peace.
Cardinal Cushing said, “Proposals made in Washington within the past few days seem to me to reflect a departure from a previous well-established determination on the part of the United States to insist on direct negotiation between Israel and the Arab states.” He added, “Efforts by our Government and the governments of the Soviet Union, England and France to impose peace terms may end in calamity for Israel, which needs so desperately to be secure, to be free, to help remake the lives of thousands driven out of Europe by harsh repression.”
Cardinal Cushing urged the Nixon Administration “to cling fast to the policy rooted in the realization that lasting peace in the Middle East is achievable only by face-to-face negotiations between the Arab states and Israel.”
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