Ford’s Speech to Congress Shows Little Evidence of Mideast Shift

President Ford’s reference to the Arab-Israeli conflict in his “State of the World” address to a joint session of Congress Thursday night has drawn little comment and is generally seen as indicating no changes in the commonly understood U.S. position. Most observers said it appeared designed to reaffirm the U.S. determination to maintain the diplomatic momentum that it has initiated and to indicate that the U.S. is not ready to make any shift, if it makes any, prior to completion of the Presidential review and after Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon meet here late next week.

Their meeting will be the first high level Israeli-U.S. session since Kissinger left Jerusalem March 22, when his attempt for a second Egyptian-Israeli agreement was suspended.

PLUS AND MINUS SEEN

Some independent observers saw a plus for Israel in the President’s remarks in that he did not refer to his “reassessment” of the Middle East situation which has been widely construed as pressure on Israel to accede to the Egyptian demands in the Kissinger shuttle diplomacy. On the other hand, his absence of any words of specific U.S. traditional support for Israel was seen as a minus.

Of the sparse comment heard from the Congress, most of it dealt with comparisons and reasons for U.S. aid to South Vietnam and Israel with the majority of those talking about that comparison taking note that the circumstances are dissimilar since Israel is fighting external forces seeking to destroy her and is a united and democratic nation.

During the discussions on television of Ford’s address, three Senators took different views on linking military aid to South Vietnam with aid to Israel. On CBS-TV, Sen, James Buckley (C-R.NY) said that the U.S. should provide South Vietnam with aid to help reverse the Vietcong attack just as the U.S. aided Israel during the Yom Kippur War. However, Senators George McGovern (D. SD) and Frank Church (D.Idaho) took issue, noting that Israel was not like South Vietnam, They noted that Israel was a democracy, fought its own wars and won them, and had a good army capable of achieving victories.

STATEMENT ON MIDEAST TERMED DISAPPOINTING

In a related development, the Rabbinical Council of America, in a letter to President Ford, expressed disappointment that Ford said nothing in his brief reference to the Middle East in his “State of the World” address “that would reassure the people of Israel of the continued friendship and support for them by the United States. The letter, signed by Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, president of the Council, added:

“I believe a great opportunity was missed to restore the confidence of the people of Israel in America’s commitment to its security. The statement that you did make seemed to convey a rather detached attitude to the real fears of the people of Israel that there is an erosion in the policy of your Administration regarding the security of the State of Israel.” Since the Ford Administration is currently reassessing its Mideast policy, it was not expected that the President would go into specifics, But Rabbi Schonfeld noted, however, that Ford’s “forthright statement” reiterating American determination to stand by its allies was commendable.

Ford touched only briefly on the Mideast during his hour-long address to the joint session of Congress, He said the U.S. would not be “discouraged” by the collapse of the second-stage Sinai talks, asserted that the “momentum toward peace… must and will be maintained,” noted that the U.S. had agreed “in principle” to a renewal of the Geneva peace talks and that the U.S. was “ready to explore other forums,” and stressed that the U.S. would not accept “stagnation or stalemate” in the Mideast.