Despite drastic cuts in the Administration’s foreign aid program in the House of Representatives last Friday two attempts to slash the proposed assistance for Israel were beaten off and the program still requests $76,000,000 for Jewish refugees in Israel.
An amendment introduced by Rep. Thurmond Chatham, of North Carolina, which would have cut Israel’s allocation to $50,000,000 was decisively defeated by a vote of 103 to 66. A substitute amendment, introduced by Rep. Walter H. Judd, of Minnesota, would have reduced the Israel allocation to $65,000,000. It was rejected by a voice vote. Rep. Chatham led the campaign to reduce aid for Israel, claiming that the proposed amount of aid would be unfair to the Arabs.
Friends of Israel in the Lower House insisted on aid to Israel as a political and potential military ally. These included Representatives Daniel Flood of Pennsylvania, Clement J. Zablocki of Wisconsin, Melvin Price of Illinois, Jacob Javits of New York, Abraham J. Multer of New York, James C. Auchincloss of New Jersey and House Majority Leader John W. McCormack of Massachusetts. Reps. Emanuel Coller and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., stressed Israel’s role as a democratic nation in the Middle East region.
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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.
