Sen. Barry Goldwater (R. Ariz.) departed yesterday from Reagan Administration Mideast policy with the assertion he would be in favor of talking with the Palestine Liberation Organization if that step would help to reduce international terrorism.
Declaring that one terrorist act sparked another, he said in a telephone interview with an NBC radio affiliate here that “that’s what you’re seeing in Iran but I think that’s what you’re going to see more of in the Middle East.” He spoke from Phoenix with Ken Alvord of the program, “News Talk ’98” on WRC.
Goldwater argued that the PLO “is demanding not necessarily recognition but that they be talked to, and while I don’t think anything is ever going to come of any talks with them, I think that until we do talk to them, we’re going to have more and more trouble.” He added he would “do anything to calm down these acts of terrorism.”
The policy of the Reagan Administration, like those of previous Administrations, is to refuse to meet with PLO chief Yasir Arafat until the PLO accepts United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for recognition of the right of existence of all states, including Israel, in the region.
Goldwater said later yesterday that he had been urging talks with the PLO “for at least five years” but that no one had listened to him. Asserting that terrorism was part of the larger Middle East deadlock, he said he thought the United States “should urge” Premier Menachem Begin and the Arab leaders “to sit down and talk to this man,” Arafat.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
