Congressmen Want Eisenhower to Deal with Arab-israel Conflict

Democratic Congressmen today criticized the Eisenhower plan for the Middle East for failing to deal adequately with the Arab- Israel question. They testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Rep. Emanuel Coiler said the Administration is “ducking responsibility” when it leaves decisions on the Arab-Israel dispute and on the Suez matter to the United Nations The Arab-Israel conflict, he said, is of greater immensity to the Middle Eastern countries than any potential Soviet threat. He said that the Eisenhower plan constitutes only a beginning and it is no more than that.

He urged the President to hear firsthand reports from Premier David Ben GURION as well as from King Saud of Saudi Arabia who will visit the President the end of this month. He said that the President’s resolution does not come to grips with such agents of destruction and obstruction as Nasser, with the pouring of Communist arms into the Middle East, with our self-interest in maintaining a democracy like Israel and with the real economic problems in the Middle East.

Rep. James Roosevelt of California questioned whether the Eisenhower plan contained adequate safeguards to assure that nations given military aid will not use it to attempt to destroy Israel, Rep. Abraham Multer of New York. submitting his own proposal, favored granting economic and military assistance to Middle Eastern countries, but only if they first entered agreements against aggression and committed them selves to abide by international law and agreed to negotiate peace treaties with neighboring states. Multer also urged the House committee to enunciate the principle that self defense is not aggression.

Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, chairman of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs, was the first Zionist leader to testify on President Eisenhower’s new Middle East plan. He warned the House Foreign Affairs Committee today that Israel’s position might become even more isolated and dangerous under President Eisenhower’s new Middle East proposals because there is no provision for the U. S to back up previous assurances and undertakings which we believe to have been guarantees for Israel

Rabbi Bernstein in said that the President’s proposal to strengthen and defend the Middle East is an important step , but it does not come to grips with the basic regional conflicts that invite Communist aggression. pie urged that the proposed resolution be a declaration of American policy which would include the following six points of action.

1. Direct Arab-Israel negotiations for peace 2 Stop appeasement of Nasser and not let him resume his former acts of hostility; 3, Security guarantees for any nation ready to commit itself to the West and to peace; 4. Arm said only on the basis of such commitment and concerted action to ban all arms shipments by all powers to the region; 5. Economic aid to those nations that desire it for peaceful purposes and to stimulate Arab refugee resettlement; 6. Strong international action to stop sea blockades.