Congressional sources expressed deep concern today over apparently well-based reports that the Ford Administration has chopped $800 million from Israel’s requested $2.3 billion in financial assistance in the 1978 U.S. fiscal year that starts next Oct. 1.
The reduction of more than a third of the amount Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres said here Dec. 13 was necessary in view of increased costs caused by inflation is not yet official. Spokesmen at the White House, the State Department and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the budget is not yet finished and until it is made public, changes can be made in it.
However, the JTA learned that the budgeting decisions on the Middle East have been completed. President Ford is to present the budget to Congress about Jan. 17, three days before he leaves office. The new Congress convenes Jan. 4. By law the new budget must be presented 15 days after Congress meets.
“If the Administration wants to destroy the chances of the moderates in Israel to win the election in the spring, this is the way to do it,” one Congressional source said in expressing the view that the cut would strengthen the opposition in Israel because it would indicate a lessening of U.S. interest in Israel’s well being. Another commented that the cut could be a fatal blow to Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s retention of power since he had commented favorably during the U.S. election campaign on Ford’s record toward Israel.
James Lynn, director of the OMB, was seen as having persuaded the President to reduce Israel’s requested $1.5 billion in military credits and $800 million in economic supporting assistance. Lynn was said to have fought granting assistance to Israel for the three-month transition between the 1976 and 1977 budgets in which Israel received about $2 billion for each year. Congress and the Administration compromised on $275 million to Israel for the transition after Congress had suggested $550 million.
Meanwhile, White House sources indicated to the JTA that Ford would present to Congress before his departure his promised delivery of sophisticated weapons to Israel, including weapons not yet on the mass production lines. The sources said the Departments of State and Defense have completed their study of the equipment Ford, said Israel is to receive but agreements on delivery dates and costs have not been reached by the two countries.
When Jimmy Carter becomes President Jan. 20 he can alter the Ford presentations to Congress. Congress itself would have much to say on both the budgeting and the arms.
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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.
