Israel’s “unique” position of American support from both the liberal left and the conservative right is a “fragile arrangement” built on conflicting motives, a coalition that could quickly erode, a congressman warned today. Rep. Benjamin S. Rosenthal (D.N.Y.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that “the very liberal left,” attracted by Israel’s social dimensions, might “easily abandon” its support as a way of expressing a post-Vietnam isolationism. An overbalance of conservative support, predicated on the image of Israel as an anti-Soviet force, “could be dangerous,” Rosenthal said.
The congressman addressed 200 leaders of B’nai B’rith groups in metropolitan New York at a weekend regional conference sponsored by the B’nai B’rith International Council. He and another conference speaker. Dr. William A. Wexler, chairman of the Council, assessed Israel’s present position, supported by American military sales and other assistance, as formidable and secure.
POWER-PLAY REVERSALS POSSIBLE
But, Rosenthal stressed, “no major power will ever endanger its vested interests for a minor power,” and the Jewish community must “accept the mission of never relaxing” against the possibility of power-play reversals such as the French “treachery,” British “indifference” and American “vacillation” just before the Six-Day War. Rosenthal noted that the $600 million in American military sales to Israel by the Nixon administration were almost eight times greater than arms sales authorized by President Johnson. He said that Nixon had overruled an “apathetic” Secretary of State William P. Rogers to authorize the most recent sale of Phantom jets.
Dr. Wexler, in his address, said that the Egyptian-Soviet strategy of seeking to pressure the United States into pressuring Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories “has failed dismally. Instead of pressuring Israel, President Nixon is calling on the Soviet Union to demonstrate its interest in settling the Middle East conflict by using its influence to persuade Egypt to undertake serious negotiations.”
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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.
