Israel will be better off in 1988 if President Reagan is elected in 1984, according to Ben Waldman, executive director of the National Jewish Coalition of the Reagan-Bush ’84 Campaign Committee, who spoke at a seminar here for about 150 young Jewish interns working in Washingto this summer. The seminar, last Wednesday, was one of six sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Waldman declared that Reagan is “very, very pro-Israel for a whole host of reasons …. Since November of last year, this has manifested itself in three ways in a new relationship between the United States and Israel — not just new for this Administration, but new since 1948.”
Waldman cited the recent strategic cooperation pact in energy between the U.S. and Israel as “one of the strategic links in international cooperation that bind these nations together. “He also lauded the proposed free trade zone and the fact that Cong-ressional appropriations have been changed from loans to all grants. “All of these things together in the long run mean a different kind of relationship, “Waldman observed.
CITES SEVERAL AGREEMENTS ON JOINT PROJECTS
He cited other agreements on joint projects between the U.S. and Israel that have been signed and are being signed such as the agreement that U.S. military and diplomatic personnel may now receive medical treatment in Israel’s hospitals. He said that these agreements do not get the media coverage they deserve.
Waldman also mentioned the large military purchases the U.S. is making, amounting to millions of dollars worth of military hardware, in Israel and its underwriting of the development of Israel’s Lavie fighter plane.
He added that the free trade zone with Israel will make Israel the only country in the world that will have free trade with both the U.S. and the European Economic Community. The free trade zone and the conversion of U.S. loans to Israel into grants will amount to “a down payment on the economic health of Israel, ” Waldman declared.
REJECTS AS FALSE CERTAIN MISAPPREHENSION
He said that at election time there seems to be a certain misapprehension among Jewish voters– Republican or Democratic — that Presidents “have a secret yearning to undermine the State of Israel and the Jewish community in America during their second term. ” This is totally untrue, Waldman stated, and pointed to the second term of former President Richard Nixon who, “as a lame duck President, came to Israel’s aid in a real crisis.”
He added that there are many governmental agencies and departments which would avert any President’s undermining of Israel because “the legitimate interest of the American public is to keep Israel strong.”
Waldman pointed out that there are also many non-Jewish groups in the U.S., such as the Evangelicals and Jerry Falwell’s Fundamentalist Christians, who have a strong interest in Israel’s continued well-being.
The third reason a President would not “get out of line,” Waldman stated, is “the strategic matrix” of the party or Administration. “There are constraints upon a President and also the world view, ” he added. “No matter how an Administration views the world, Israel fits in there somewhere.”
“If a President is good (to Israel) in his first term, he will be good in the second term — probably better, “Waldman concluded.
More than 200 interns and Jewish college students will participate in AIPAC’s national political leadership training program July 28-29 at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md. campus.
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