Father Robert Drinan, a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, accused President Carter last night of having “made two major mistakes in regard to the Middle East. First, he tried to re-involve the Russians in the Middle East…a profound mistake” that “fortunately…became moot with the peace initiative of President Sadat,” the Roman Catholic priest said. “The second major mistake he has made was proposing jets for Saudi Arabia and for Egypt,” Drinan said, expressing hope “that the Congress would be able to defeat that.”
Drinan made his remarks in a speech and question-and-answer period before a combined gathering of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East and the American-Israel Friendship league, at the America-Israel Friendship House here.
Referring to the latest terrorist assault on Israel, he observed: “What the tragedy of Saturday will remind everybody is the intense vulnerability of Israel. Any type of Palestinian homeland or an Arab nation on the West Bank is just to create for Israel a booby trap, a staging ground of Russian-financed military might there on the West Bank, 8-10 miles from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.”
According to Drinan, “It is unreasonable for Israel to agree to get everybody out of the West Bank until the Israelis get some assurances that they will in fact get security; otherwise, if they do that recklessly, just to appease American or world opinion, they (the Israelis) will have slaughter, time and time again.”
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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.
