President Carter indicated last night that he will not support the plank in the Democratic Party’s platform calling for moving the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“it has been our policy that Jerusalem should remain forever undivided with free access to the holy places for people of all faiths,” the President said in a written message to the delegates of the Democratic National Convention just before he was renominated as the party’s candidate for a second term. “It has been and must remain our policy that the ultimate status of Jerusalem should be a matter of negotiations between the parties.”
Carter did not endorse moving the embassy during the 1976 campaign although it was also called for in the Democratic Party platform. The Republican National Convention in Detroit last month in naming Ronald Reagan as the GOP Presidential candidate, adopted a plank supporting the continuation of a united Jerusalem but did not mention moving the embassy.
Carter, in his statement to the delegates, a so pledged never to pressure Israel, promised not to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization and to continue the Middle East peace process begun by the Camp David accords.
ISRAELI’S VIEW OF PLATFORM PLANK
Meanwhile, a former New Yorker who represents American citizens in Israel at the Democratic convention, but who is not a delegate, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency lost night he believes that Carter would win if he moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. In an interview with the JTA just off the convention floor, David Froehlich, chairman of the Tel Aviv branch of Democrats Abroad, said such a decision is not only “morally right” but would help Israel, the United States and the world.
Froehlich, a 52-year-old school teacher and playwright who lives in Rehovot, Israel, said that he would suggest that the embassy be moved to West Jerusalem. He said if this was done, the West European nations would follow the U.S. example. “It would take guts,” Froehlich declared, “and the world respects a leader with guts. We in Israel have to live with guts in our daily lives.”
Carter’s statement on Jerusalem was lost last night amidst the general anger by many supporters of Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts over the President’s refusal to also endorse the plank, which the Kennedy forces had pushed through Tuesday night, pledging a $12 billion jobs program. Instead, the President promised an economic recovery program that would “create hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
Carter’s statement on Jerusalem was presaged Monday by Alfred Moses, the President’s special advisor on Jewish issues, who told reporters here that the Administration believed that the status of Jerusalem must be decided upon through negotiations between the parties. But it was at variance with a statement to the convention by Sen. Daniel Moynihan of New York who asserted the embassy would be moved.
CITES COMMITMENT OF ADMINISTRATION
Before discussing Jerusalem in his statement to the delegates, Carter said: “One of the abiding commitments of my Administration is to a strong, secure Israel at peace with its neighbors, Living within secure and recognized borders. There is no issue on which I have devoted more of my time and energy than to ensuring lasting peace between Israel and her neighbors. The Comp David accords are an historic step toward this ultimate result. Our policy in the Middle East has been and will continue to be guided by these accords.
“The platform well states principles of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. It reaffirms what has been and will always be the position of my Administration — that we will not negotiate or recognize the PLO unless and until it accepts Israel’s right to exist and accepts UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. As the platform recognizes ‘it is also long past time for an end to all terrorism and other acts of violence against Israel.
“I am also proud that we have provided a record amount of economic and military assistance to Israel. Unlike the policy of the previous Republican Administration there have been arms cutoffs or ‘reassessments’ of policy, nor will there be under a Carter Presidency.”
The President’s efforts in seeking Middle East peace were mentioned last night by Mrs. Coretto Scott King, widow of the slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In a speech seconding the President’s nomination, she called the Administration’s record a four-year “journey of peace,” which included helping bring about peace between Israel and Egypt and efforts for a “brooder peace in the Middle East.”
SAYS MOST AMERICANS IN ISRAEL ARE ANTI-CARTER
Meanwhile, Froehlich said he will be returning to Israel where he hopes to convince fellow Democrats to support Carter. He said there are about 150,000 U.S. citizens in Israel of whom he expects 50,000 to vote in the November election. Froehlich said that most Americans living in Israel are anti-Carter. He said a move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem would help win their support. But, he added, most of them were Democrats in the U.S. and he believes they should support the party and the principles for which it stands.
Froehlich is not one of the eight voting members of the Democrats from Abroad delegation, each of whom has a half vote. But he was added to the group because Israel provided 40 percent of the primary vote for Democrats from Abroad. Officially he is listed as a page but he said he considers himself a representative of Israel at the convention, the first time Israel has been represented, and has been explaining Israel’s position to delegates.
In the primary elections Americans in Israel voted 70 percent for Kennedy. The Democrats from Abroad were split with 2 votes for Kennedy and 1.5 for Carter and a half vote uncommitted.
Froehlich was active in Democratic politics in New York before going on aliya in 1973. He was Born in Wurzburg, Germany and emigrated with his parents and two younger sisters to the U.S. in 1939 when he was II.
Froehlich entered Democratic politics in New York. After immigrating to Israel where he teaches English in a high school, he found that there was a Democrats from Abroad group in Jerusalem with about 500 members. He helped organize a chapter in the coastal area and the Tel Aviv branch now has about the some number of members as the Jerusalem group.
Froehlich considers himself a survivor of the Holocaust although he did not experience the death camps. He and his family arrived in New York on Nov. 10, 1939, the first anniversary of Kastalloacht Froehlich who has acted and produced, has written a play about the Holocaust, “The Chosentew.”
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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.
