Fulbright; War Could Destroy Israel

In a hard-hitting no-nonsense statement. Sea. J.W.Fulbright predicted this weekend that another Arab-Israeli war could destroy Israel and claimed that a settlement to avert war would require Israel to withdraw to “her approximate borders of 1967” and relinquish East Jerusalem to international control.

The Arkansas Democrat, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a lecture at Westminister College in Fulton, Missouri, the same place where Winston Churchill made his famous “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946, that another war between Israel and the Arabs would be more protracted and devastating because both sides had more deadlier weapons and were prepared to use them.

In proposing his terms for a settlement Fulbright also recommended “self-determination for the Palestinian people of the West Bank.” United Nations supervision of the settlement and a U.S. treaty with Israel to guarantee her territory and independence.

“On the basis of unofficial soundings there is reason to believe that the Soviet Union would be prepared to Join in such a settlement, including the guarantee of Israel,” Fulbright said. He noted that a settlement might lead eventually to a significant reduction In oil prices, but not at once. A settlement would, however, “create a much improved environment for negotiations on oil supply and prices,” he stated.

The 69-year-old Senator, who was defeated this year in a primary election, traced the danger of inflation to an imbalance of International payments “caused by the quadrupling of the price of oil since the October war” in 1973. He stated that the only way to avoid economic collapse and political upheaval is to get a Mideast settlement.