Dr. Herbert Stein, chairman of President Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisers, said that “U.S. policy relative to Israel in all respects is firmly based to maintain the independence of Israel.” That policy, the U.S. government’s chief economist noted, grows out of a variety of reasons, “some sentimental but mainly based on the U.S. interest.” and “this underlies our relations in all aspects.”
Dr. Stein spoke at the luncheon Friday at the first symposium of the Economic Advisory Council of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He cautioned that while the “basic conditions for supportive” actions by the U.S. are “very strong” a “certain amount of pulling and hauling” between the two countries will be evidenced, “but this should not disturb U.S.-Israeli relations.”
Dr. Stein was one of some 40 eminent Israel and American economists who presented papers on a select range of topics on American-Israel economic relations at a three-day symposium here that ended today.
ENERGY CRISIS CASTS OMINOUS SHADOW
Dr. Mordecai Hacohen, acting chairman of the Economic Advisory Council and chairman of the American Bank and Trust Co. of New York, said that new challenges facing Israel and the world are “great and urgent” and “any weakening of the free world’s position means a weakening of Israel’s position.” Opening the symposium Dr. Hacohen pointed out that “the very growing energy crisis casts an ominous shadow over Israel and the free world and the interrelationship of both.”
Any vibrations in the world community “affect Israel because the Jewish homeland has always been situated upon the central crossroads of history,” Dr. Hacohen said. He noted that “Israel can become an example for other nations to follow,” and suggested that it seek to harness and use nuclear energy for industrial use and desalinate sea water for irrigation and hydroelectric power.
He also noted that if Israel, in a limited area of irrigated land, can produce enough food to feed its 3 million people at a high level of sustenance and have growing agricultural surpluses every year, “is it really necessary for the phantom of starvation to be spreading his shadow over so much land in Africa and Asia?” Dr. Haochem said the symposium’s recommendations will be offered to the Israeli Prime Ministers Third Economic Conference in Jerusalem at the end of May. He added that the symposium was “not linked or influenced by Israel or the U.S. government.”
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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.
