A resolution urging the United States “to continue to ensure Israel’s defensive and deterrent strength through direct arms aid” and at the same time, to encourage Arab leaders “to engage in negotiations leading to a peaceful settlement with Israel, ” was adopted today at Hadassah’s annual mid-winter conference now taking place here.
“Peace is the only long-range alternative to the futile and explosive policy being pursued by the Arab states in the Near East, ” the resolution said. It welcomed the announcement that the U.S. Government is “not indifferent to the destabilization” in the Near East “resulting from Egypt’s massive purchases of Soviet arms. “
“The fact that the United States has been selling various items of military equipment to the Government of Israel to help it meet its defensive and internal security requirements serves notice to all concerned that the United States commitment to Israel’s security and territorial integrity will be backed up by measures necessary to assure it, ” the resolution continued.
Declaring that “the Arab states constantly declare their intention to destroy Israel, ” the resolution said: “The Soviet Government is a major supplier of arms to Egypt, whose military establishment is rapidly becoming modern and efficient. Israel is the major target of Egypt’s military ambitions. Israel has no choice. It must prevent aggression by maintaining sufficient military strength to discourage it and to defend itself if attacked. No one wants an arms race in the Near East or any other region. But massive shipments of sophisticated weapons to Egypt keep on creating new arms imbalances which must be continuously rectified,”
In another resolution dealing with the problems of Soviet Jewry, Hadassah called upon the U.S. Government “to exert maximum influence within the United Nations and through diplomatic channels to convince the Soviet Government that discriminatory policies against its Jewish nationals constitute a violation of elementary human rights which are a common concern of free men and free nations.”
Specifically, Hadassah urged that the Soviet Government be called upon “to accord its Jewish national and ethnic group the same rights and privileges accorded to all other national and ethnic groups within the USSR. This means permitting its Jewish citizens freely, to carry on their own cultural and religious life and to transmit it to their children; giving the Jewish community in the USSR the same opportunities to maintain association with their fellow Jews abroad as are permitted other nationalities and ethnic groups. ” The resolution also urged that permission be granted “to the thousands of Jewish families in the USSR, separated from their relatives by the Nazi holocaust, to rejoin surviving members of their families abroad if they so choose. “
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