Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal (D. NY), urged American Jews to “stand united in our unswerving support for the State of Israel” and to “keep the American government principled and honest in its role as Middle East negotiator.”
This means, said the Congressman, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, “saying yes to the Reagan Administration’s desire to advance the process of peace, but no to any effort to write the script of a settlement in advance.” Rosenthal delivered the major address at Sunday night’s opening session of the 14th National Board Conference of Women’s American ORT here, attended by some 800 delegates from all over the country. The conference ends tomorrow.
Rosenthal said that American Jews can further support Israel by “saying yes to Camp David, but no to the participation therein of the PLO… Saying yes to conciliation, but no to any effort which does not begin with Arab recognition of Israel’s right to exist — a simple recognition of reality, and not some diplomatic concession to be rewarded in kind.”
TAKES DIM VIEW OF REAGAN’S PLAN
Referring apparently to President Reagan’s Middle East initiative of September I in which he proposed Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza Strip in association with Jordan, the New York Democrat said he took “a dim view of “efforts to tell Israel what her borders ought to be, or wherein her security truly lies. And I take a dim view of welcoming an Arab delegation with pomp and geniality, while the Administration prepares for the visit of Prime Minister Begin by leaking stories of its intention to reprimand him.”
Rosenthal was referring to press reports that Reagan would get tough with Begin on the issue of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, published while the White House was receiving an Arab League delegation headed by King Hassan of Morocco earlier this month. Begin’s scheduled meeting with Reagan on November 19 was cancelled when Begin cut short his visit to the U.S. on the death of his wife Aliza November 14.
Rosenthal declared that “matters like these make all the more clear how important the U.S. Congress is to the future of Israel … Again and again Congressional action has been necessary when the Executive branch has tilted toward Arab nations,” he said.
“The U.S. Congress must be a watchdog for the interests of Israel in any peace process initiated by the U.S. government. And the job of organizations like yours, quite frankly, is to make sure the watchdog is awake,” he told the Women’s ORT delegates.
He said that after the war in Lebanon, “thoughtful, moderate Arabs” see the failure of war. “But they will only come forward if they are encouraged to do so — not with false promises and gestures but with tough-minded actions by the United States to make clear the potential rewards of peace and the consequences of failure,” Rosenthal said.
He cautioned that there are some in official Washington “who see negotiations primarily as a means to court the oil-producing Arab nations, not to bring about a just peace. Israelis and their friends are not wrong to be suspicious of calls for negotiations coming from such quarters,” he said.
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