A number of Democratic Senators took the Senate floor Monday to assail the administration’s policy on Israel. Sen. Joseph Tydings, Maryland, said “I fear a dangerous retrogression in U.S. policy is occurring.” He condemned the government’s Middle East peace proposals, depicting this initiative as a source of jeopardy to Israel. The Senator said the United States was “morally committed to the preservation of Israel as a Jewish homeland.”
Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, of Connecticut, charged that the State Department has been “outclassed and out maneuvered” by the Soviet Union in the Middle East. He said “we have been left with egg a la russe on our face as a result of the Soviet backtracking while the Israelis are now faced with a serious undercutting of their bargaining position. Regrettably, significant concessions were offered, without consultation, by Israel’s only major ally, the United States.” Sen. Ribicoff said administration policy was undermining Israel but winning no new friends among the Arabs. He asserted that the administration had played into the hands of the Soviet Union. In his view, the U.S. had, by proposing a detailed settlement, too quickly encouraged Arab hostilities and allowed the Arabs to avoid a real settlement.
He said the United States was attempting to bring about “an imposed settlement.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.