Max Fisher met with President Ford at the White House yesterday for an hour where the two discussed American-Israeli relations and the Presidential campaign. The Detroit industrialist, who is a leader in the Republican Party’s high councils, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after his meeting with Ford that the President “listened intently” when he suggested that something ought to be done about the Israeli-American flare-up over the $550 million transitional quarter aid for Israel.
The President, Fisher emphasized, gave no indication to him one way or the other on the Administration’s future course on the issue. Fisher expressed himself to JTA as hopeful for a compromise.
The Administration has thus far refused to go along with a Senate formula that would add about $800 million to the 1976 fiscal year budget to account for the three months prior to Oct. 1 when the new fiscal year 1977 begins. With the President having threatened to veto such legislation, Congress has postponed its decision until its return next week from the Easter recess.
Fisher and Ford also discussed the Mideast situation, but Fisher would not give details about that part of their conversation. Fisher, who is also chairman of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors, just returned from Israel where he had met with Premier Yitzhak Rabin and other top Israeli political authorities. Before leaving for Israel two weeks ago he and Ford had a meeting.
On the U.S. political situation, Fisher lashed out at the “fallacious rumor” that Ford is not interested in the Jewish vote. He said he and the President discussed the importance of the Jewish vote and other matters related to the Presidential campaign. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s successor as assistant to the President on Internal Security Affairs, attended yesterday’s meeting.
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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.
