President Eisenhower, who is on a hunting vacation in Georgia, conferred twice during the last 24 hours by telephone with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles on developments concerning the U.S. demand that Israel withdraw its troops unconditionally from the Gaza and Akaba areas.
The Administration is worried that Israel’s continued refusal to withdraw will indicate American weakness in Arab eyes and offset the gains made with King Saud of Saudi Arabia. Linked with the issue of Israel withdrawal, according to U.S. sources, are the question of Suez Canal reopening and the whole U.S. policy toward the Arabs to sell the Eisenhower Doctrine.
Secretary Dulles conferred at his home yesterday with Robert D. Murphy, Deputy Under Secretary of State. Earlier, Mr. Murphy met with Israel Ambassador Abba Eban but the deadlock continued. Israel continued to demand effective guarantees while the State Department insisted that Israel first withdraw.
Congressional opinion, Republican as well as Democratic, this week-end moved increasingly toward opposition to sanctions against Israel. Legislators felt that the President and Secretary of State were taking an inconsistently tough attitude toward Israel while failing to face continued defiance of the United Nations by Russia and India, as well as Egypt.
The leader of a group of 41 House Republicans which has opposed “one-sided” United Nations action against Israel said today it would be “shocking and morally indefensible” for the United States to be a party to any UN move to impose sanctions on Israel “because this country is small enough to be shoved around.” Rep. Hugh Scott, Pennsylvania Republican, pointed out that the United States had asked for no sanctions against Russia or India even, those countries have defied the UN
Sen. Alexander Wiley, of Wisconsin, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he did not believe proposed UN sanctions against Israel would be “either a fair, justified, or an effective answer” to the present deadlock.
Republican Senators Irving M. Ives and Jacob K. Javits, both of New York, joined in a letter to Secretary of State Dulles urging that “our government should not back sanctions against Israel so long as Egypt remains in default and defiance of United Nations resolutions.” The two Senators said it would be a “serious error” to support any UN sanctions against Israel. They said an argument on sanctions advanced last week by Senate Republican Leader William F. Knowland of California “certainly has considerable logic.” Sens. Ives and Javits told Mr. Dulles that Egypt has resumed importation of Soviet arms in violation of UN resolutions asking all members to refrain from “introducing military goods in the area of hostility.”
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