Republican attacks on the Administration for having given United States support to the United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel mounted in intensity today and were staged in both houses. In the Senate, three Western Republicans, George Murphy of California, Peter Dominick of Colorado and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, took the floor to denounce the position taken by the United States. In the House of Representatives, blistering attacks on Administration policy was made by Rep. John J, Rhodes of Arizona, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, and by Rep. Joel T. Broyhill of Virginia.
Sen. Murphy condemned the Security Council resolution as “unfair to Israel” and called for policies which “accurately reflect the feelings of the American people and our traditional friendship for Israel.” Sen. Scott called the UN resolution “regrettable” and warned that it could result in “increased tensions and danger of hostilities.” He asserted that it “excuses or, at least minimizes other acts of violence in the area” while censuring Israel alone. Sen. Dominick linked the Middle East and Vietnam situations and chided the Administration for overlooking “the terrible dangers of increasing Soviet penetration in the Mideast.” He urged support of “traditional friends and of basic principles of justice” in the Middle East.
Rep. Rhodes, who speaks for the Republican leadership on policy matters, complained that “we are holding the line against Communist terrorism and aggression in the Far East but apparently appeasing the same threats in the Middle East.” He charged that when American representative Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg “failed to obtain a specific censure of Arab terrorist attacks modelled after the tactics of the Viet Cong,” he was “nevertheless, authorized by the Administration to cast the American vote with the Russian and Arab delegations for the one-sided measure that emerged.” The Arizona Republican warned that “such a resolution does not inhibit but encourages terrorism, Israel is threatened with UN sanctions if she again uses force in self-defense. But the Arabs were not told to curb their own brand of violence.”
Rep. Broyhill told the House that “we will get nowhere by opposing aggression and terrorism in Vietnam while appeasing aggression and terrorism in the Middle East.” He charged that El Fatah used Viet Cong tactics and had “Red Chinese” instruction manuals “in the art of underground terrorism.” The Israelis, he said, had captured the same types of Chinese and Russian weapons “used against our own forces in Vietnam.”
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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.
