The Democratic Party this morning overwhelmingly accepted the five-point plank on the Middle East offered by its platform committee, but a move to provide additional American protection for Israel against possible Soviet military threats ran into unexpected opposition and barely received the convention’s approval.
In a surprising turn of events during the final minutes of the unbroken 11-hour session that lasted through the night, the weary delegates adopted by a voice vote a proposal that says the American government should station land forces in Europe and naval power in the Mediterranean to “deter” the Soviet Union from putting “unbearable pressure” on Israel.
Without having previously been scheduled to debate the proposal, a 24-year-old community organizer from Salt Lake City, Fred Dedrick, attacked it as a “Kissinger-type confrontation tactic of the cold war.” His impassioned opposition drew heavy support in the voice vote and when the temporary chairman, Mrs. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a Black Los Angeles attorney, ruled the proposal had been accepted, a roll call was demanded from the floor. Twenty percent of the delegates present are required to affirm a roll call. When Mrs. Burke asked the delegates in favor of a poll to stand it appeared, however, that less than a score among the approximately 3000 delegates rose and the proposal was ruled as adopted.
JACKSON SUPPORTER ASKS FORCE TO PROTECT ISRAEL
The sequence of events that led to the dramatic climax did not go according to a reported agreement among managers of the rival presidential candidates and principally between those for Sens. George McGovern and Henry M. Jackson. It left the Jackson supporters furious at what they regarded as an attempt by the McGovern backers to snatch some pro-Israel credit.
Jack Tanner, 58-year-old Black lawyer from Tacoma and an avid Jackson supporter, began the proceedings on the item which was the last of 13 minority reports on the platform’s policy section. He appealed for approval of an American “political commitment” and “ample” armed forces to protect Israel from Soviet pressures. The original platform plank spoke of a similar commitment on forces, but did not specify where they were to be and said that they were to “deter the Soviet Union from using military force in the area.”
Mrs. Nancy Hill, an alternate delegate from Maine pledged to Sen. Edmund 8. Muskie, was selected by the committee to rebut Tanner’s appeal, but she cancelled her presentation. “Just about every body is in favor of that (Jackson) plank,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency shortly before she was to make her presentation. “Personally, I’m against the extreme language in it,” she said.
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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.
