President Ford told an Israeli newspaper editor that there will be no changes in his policy toward Israel after the American Presidential elections next November. He made that pledge in an otherwise “off the record” interview with Moshe Zak, deputy editor of Maariv, in the Oval Office of the White House late last week. The interview was published here yesterday.
Asked by Zak for an “on-the-record” message to his readers, the President said: “After the election there will be no change in the direction of my policy. There will be no change in my devotion to the aims I have several times defined — momentum, good relations with Israel, my own friendly relations with Premier Rabin. There will be no shift from the fundamentals of my present policy.”
Zak wrote that he was particularly impressed by Ford’s detailed knowledge of the debate on the West Bank and renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights, both of which were occupying the UN Security Council when the interview took place.
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