Gop Senator Criticizes Nixon, Administration for Keeping Israel Guessing on Arms

Sen. Bob Packwood (R., Ore.) told the JTA in an interview Friday that military aid to Israel should be handled “with the same quiet commitment and lack of fanfare as military aid to Turkey.” He criticized the Nixon Administration for “keeping Israel on tenterhooks” about the future of military supplies, and said that the military aid should be separated totally from the Mideast negotiations. He vehemently disapproved of using military aid as a bargaining chip in any negotiations, adding, “We don’t make Turkish military aid contingent on their closing the Dardenelles to Soviet military movements.” He said that “no shipments of military supplies should be withhold unless we are absolutely convinced that there is a surfeit” and Israel cannot absorb additional supplies effectively. He suggested reviewing Israel requests on the basis of “need and parity” with Soviet and American supplies Arab neighbors and giving “heavy credence” to Israeli estimates.

Packwood criticized the State Department for “pushing the Israelis and Arabs to some conclusion which the State Department thinks is satisfactory.” The Arabs and the Israelis have been living together for thousands of years. Packwood pointed out. He urged the State Department to “quit trying to get a settlement– any settlement.” He said the U.S. should be content with just offering the “use of its good offices” because “there is no way to force a treaty in the Middle East without blackjacking Israel with arms, a clearly immoral thing to do.” Packwood who recently returned from Israel where he studied the “geography in dispute” and agricultural techniques for application in his home state, told the JTA that Congress must take a more active role in the arms supply so that “Israel is not left at the whim of the President- any President.” He said such as enlarged role would include keeping the Executive branch as well as Congress and the public alert to Soviet penetration of the area and the fact that Israel has no other possible source of major armaments.

On the status of present negotiations for an interim settlement to reopen the Suez Canal. Packwood told the JTA that he “cannot believe that Donald Bergus (the top American diplomat in Cairo) circulated a memo on his own personal whim or on his own initiative without telling his superiors” as claimed by the State Department. He added that while an interim settlement was still possible, he hoped the State Department would not use the military aid to Israel to force her into one. On the geography of a possible permanent settlement. Packwood said that the cast talk of the canal would not be essential to Israeli interests if she could retain the mountain passes controlling access to the desert. He said that Sharmel-Sheikh was “paramount” and although Jerusalem was a complex emotional issue, he did not see it as vital to Israel’s security interests.