Carter Seen Getting Majority of Jewish Vote Despite His Present Difficulties with Jewish Community

Two leading Jews in the Carter Administration said today that they believed that despite President Carter’s present difficulties in the Jewish community he will receive the vote of the majority of Jews in the November election. “When November comes and their choices are clear, President Carter will be reelected, “Secretary of Commerce Philip Klutznick said.

Klutznick and Alfred Moses, a special assistant to Carter and his liaison with the Jewish community spoke at a press conference for the Jewish media at the Carter Mondale headquarters for the Democratic National Convention which opened today.

Klutznick, who is on leave as president of the World Jewish Congress, said that after President Carter is renominated Wednesday night the Administration “hopes to remove some of the misapprehensions that seem” to have developed about the President within the Jewish community.

Although Klutznick did not say how this would be done, Moses later told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that a committee to deal with Jewish voters would be set up soon. He also said that Carter plans to host Jewish leaders at the white House Aug. 26 and 28 and to make a major address to the biennial convention of B’nai B’rith International in Washington in September. Republican candidate Ronald Reagan and independent John Anderson are expected to be there.

SEES NO PRESSURE ON ISRAEL

When asked about the tear in the Jewish community that if reelected, Carter as a second term President would feel free to pressure Israel and support the Palestinians, both men rejected this. “The nation that a man changes” because be is free of reelection worries is an “ignoble thought, ” Klutznick said. He said he did not believe that the Administration would change over the next four years.

Klutznick noted that the Jewish community has “mistrusted Presidents since Truman.” Moses added that Jews can remember the arms embargo put on Israel by Truman, Eisenhower’s threats during the 1956 Suez War, the fact that very little arms were sold Israel during the Kennedy Administration, President Johnson’s slowness to act when the Strait of Tiran was closed in 1967 and his slowness to support Israel in the Six-Day War, “the dragging of feel” by the Nixon Administration to rearm Israel during the Yom Kippur War and President Ford’s “reassessment” in 1975.

“None of this happened under the Carter Administration, “Moses declared. “This Administration and this Congress” have provided the military needs so that Israel can now defend itself against any combination of enemies over the next five years, he stressed. He said Israel has received $10.5 billion during the last three-and-a-half years, half the total U.S. aid it has received in its history.

Moses declared that the last four years “were the best” in terms of U.S. support for Israel despite a few votes for or abstentions in the United Nations on resolutions dealing with Israel. Moses said that if the resolution now being prepared by the Islamic states in the UN requesting the Security Council to condemn Israel for officially proclaiming united Jerusalem the capital of Israel continues to contain proposals for sanctions against Israel, the U.S. will vote it.

He said that although the proposed Democratic Party platform contains a provision calling for moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Carter Administration will follow the Camp David agreement calling for no unilateral moves on Jerusalem but a negotiated agreement between the parties involved.

ISSUE OF ORTHODOX JEWS

When asked why Orthodox Jews should support the Democratic platform since the Republicans oppose abortions and the Equal Rights Amendment and support aid to parochial schools, Moses urged, “look at the whole range of issues that concern us as Jews” when judging the two parties. He said if this is done, Orthodox Jews will see that the Democrats provide more programs that concern the quality of their life.

Klutznick said he believes that good Jewish education cannot be provided by private funds alone, but that some way must first be worked out to solve the question of the Constitutional separation of church and state. He said the preservation of the Constitution is more important to minorities than even the issue of aid to parochial schools. Klutznick said he has been invited to meet with Orthodox Jewish leaders in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn this Thursday. He did not identify the leaders.

Klutznick said he was concerned about the “deterioration of European support” for Israel as evidenced by the fact that the U.S. was only one of four countries at the recent world conference of the United Nations Debate for Women which rejected the 400 point “plan of action” because it included a paragraph that listed Zionism as one of the world’s worst evils, along with colonialism and apartheid.

While 94 national delegations voted for the “plan of action” only the U.S., Canada, Israel and Australia voted against it while most of the West European delegations abstained. But, Klutznick added, the U.S. is still the strongest country in the world and the “only hope” is a continuation of the position taken by the Carter Administration. “We have a tough few years ahead. ” he observed.

IRANIAN JEWS BEING ADMITTED TO THE U.S.

On a non-compaign issue, Moses said that since April, Jews and other Iranian minorities have been admitted to the United States despite a ban on Iranians coming here. He said one problem was that among those admitted some were suspected of planning to stay here permanently rather than just the six months allowed on a visitor’s visa. He said this has been overcome by allowing Consulates abroad to grant a “humanitarian parole” to those who qualify through application to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Since April, 105 of III Jews who applied were admitted by the INS, Moses said.