Falwell Says U.S. Has Made a ‘Door-Mat’ out of Israel by Not Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, president of the Moral Majority, charged yesterday that the United States has made an international "door-mat" out of Israel by the refusal to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The U.S. position is "a slap in the face of one of our true friends in the world," the Protestant fundamentalist leader said in testifying before a joint hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittees on Europe and the Middle East and on International Operations. "We are making them (Israel) a door-mat for other nations."

Falwell noted that "historically very few countries can point to 4,000 years of historic evidence of the position of its capital." He stressed that "Israel is not asking a favor, it’s exerting a right, the right to be treated as other nations, the right to have its capital recognized by all nations."

The issue is moral, not political, Falwell said. He added that he would like to see the Reagan Administration move the Embassy to Jerusalem by executive order, but if Congress adopts the proposed bill requiring the move he believes President Reagan will do the "right thing" and sign it.

STRONGER CONGRESSIONAL BILL URGED

Thomas Dine, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, denied reports that AIPAC was not wholeheartedly behind the bill introduced by Reps. Tom Lantos (D. Cal.) and Benjamin Gilman (R. NY) in the House and Sens. Daniel Moynihan (D. NY) and Arlen Specter (R. Pa.) in the Senate.

But Dine said he would like to see an even stronger bill since the proposed legislation does not carry a deadline for moving the Embassy. However, Dine stressed that now that the Embassy issue has been raised in Congress, the U.S. Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem if not through the action of this Congress then by its successors.

Falwell and Dine were among three Christians and two Jewish spokespersons who supported the bill before the two subcommittees yesterday. Moving the Embassy was opposed by David Sadd, executive director of the National Association of Arab-Americans, and the Rev. Charles Kimball, director of the Middle East and Europe Office of the National Council of Churches.

Sadd said no action would have a more dangerous effect and harm U.S. national interests than moving the Embassy. Kimball said it would hurt U.S. credibility which is already at a low point in the Arab world. Both warned that moving the Embassy to Jerusalem would be resented in the entire Islamic world.

BILL WOULD SEND WORLDWIDE MESSAGE

Responding to what Sadd has said, Howard Friedman, president of the American Jewish Committee, said the conflict in the Middle East is the result of the "refusal of the Arab states to procede on the basis of Israel having legitimacy as a sovereign state." He said by refusing to move the Embassy the U.S. "confirms" the lack of legitimacy.

The bill should be passed as "a message to the rest of the world and to Israel’s enemies particularly that there is no substitute for recognizing legitimacy, no substitute for negotiating with Israel as a sovereign state," Friedman said.

The Rev. John Pawlikowski, a member of the executive committee of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, said those who oppose moving the Embassy encourage the Arab "illusion" that Israel will disappear. He said that Israel must have sovereignty over Jerusalem although he believed a shared sovereignty for the Old City might be required.

Sister Rose Therry, vice president of the American-Israel Friendship League, contrasted the access to and the care of the holy sites in Jerusalem under Israeli tule to the desecrations and barring of Jews when East Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan.