Columnist Says U.S. Supplying Bombs to Israel; State Department Confirms Report

Syndicated columnist Jack Anderson says he learned from “most re-liable sources” that the United States was supplying bombs to Israel. “Israel urgently needed bombs and the U.S. agreed to supply some,” Mr. Anderson stated today in the New York Post. “The bomb deal received the personal approval of President Nixon, who has been criticized by Jewish leaders In this country for not doing enough for Israel,” Mr. Anderson wrote. “But top State Department officials apparently have been kept in the dark about the bomb shipments.” (In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey, while maintaining that be was “not at liberty” to go into detail, said at his press briefing today he was surprised at charges of “an alleged air of secrecy about this item.” He said the U.S. has had an ongoing, project-by-project program of military aid to Israel for several years. State Department sources contacted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency said there was “no doubt” about the bomb sales.) Mr. Anderson said President Nixon first hinted that the U.S. might be giving secret aid to Israel when he told a closed door conference with the nation’s governors last week the U.S. was helping Israel in ways he could not talk about.