Sen. Frank Church (D.Idaho) accused the Ford Administration last night of viewing progress toward peace in the Middle East as meaning concessions only from Israel and as being ambiguous on its stand toward the Arab boycott.
“Israel has become a symbol of America’s commitment to principle,” he said. “America’s ability to withstand the temptation of purely economic gain, to recognize that there are shared values which these two people are committed and which are every bit as tangible–and more important–than pieces of machinery.”
Church, who is a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, had to be in Oregon last night. But his speech was read by his wife. Bethine, to more than 300 persons attending the 20th anniversary dinner of Bar Ilan University at the Pierre Hotel at which Mrs. Jane Stern, of New York was installed as the first woman chairman of the American Board of Overseers.
Dr. Joseph H. Lookstein, chancellor of the university located in Ramat Gan and president of the Synagogue Council of America, said he believed Bar Ilan was the first Jewish university to have a woman as head of one of its corporate bodies and “certainly” the first religious institution to do so. Bar Ilan, which was founded by a group of American Jews, is the only religiously-oriented university in Israel.
ARABS MAY GET WRONG IMPRESSION
Church’s speech warned that the “fantastic” economic power being accumulated by the oil-rich Arab states “has become a source of undue pressure for a settlement which is not at all equitable but merely one-sided.” He said the Administration has also seen progress in the Mideast as Israel’s willingness “to make significant concessions without parallel moves on the part of the Arab states.”
The Idaho Senator stressed that “the Legitimacy and existence of Israel cannot be bartered away. Quiet diplomacy notwithstanding, we must declare in unmistakable terms that there can be no peace in the Middle East without an open and explicit acknowledgement (by the Arabs) that Israel exists, it will continue to exist and it has every right to exist.”
Church said the danger now is that “the more extreme Arab partisans will come to believe that concessions can be won from the U.S., involving the security of Israel, by taking the most uncompromising position. After all, the PLO now has access to the most prestigious international forums without having yielded an inch in its intransigent opposition to the very existence of a Jewish State….We must leave the PLO and its supporters no doubt that some things are not negotiable, specifically Israel’s right to exist.”
Church, whose Senate subcommittee on Multinational Corporations released last year a list of the American firms on the Arab boycott, said that President Ford and some Administration officials have attacked the boycott while other Administration officials have been against doing anything to counterattack it. “One has to question whether an Administration so torn by internal dissention really has the will to stand up for principle or merely knuckles under to economic pressure by big American corporations anxious to cash in on the Arab oil bonanza,” he said.
FEELS CLOSE ISRAELI-AMERICAN BOND
Mrs. Church visited Israel earlier this year in the company of Mrs. Stern and her husband, Jerome Stern, following the second World Conference on Soviet Jewry in Brussels at which the Idaho Senator participated.
In an interview prior to the dinner, Mrs. Church said she came away from her five-day visit with a feeling that there is a close bond between Americans and Israelis. She said that she is particularly interested in sociological problems and said she found that Israel is dealing with the same social problems as the United States in such things as integration, education and other areas. She said that Israel and Israelis reminded her of Idaho and Idahoans. Mrs. Church, who met with Premier Yitzhak Rabin, Defense Minister Shimon Peres, former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Foreign Minister Yigal Allon during her visit, also planted a tree in the American Bicentennial National Forest and lit a memorial candle at Yad Vashem.
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