Israel is Not South Vietnam

Declaring that a “blitzkrieg war of diplomatic nerves is being orchestrated against Israel,” Dr. Joseph P. Sternstein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, declared here last night that “the American people understand that Israel is not South Vietnam.” In his address to the ZOA’s national executive committee, he also stated that “Israel will not permit herself to be forced to concede its strategic safety without clear, open and public understandings with Arab countries, buttressed by internationally understood acts of palpable significance.”

Focusing on President Ford’s reassessment of the Middle East, Dr. Sternstein said this should “include a firm and immediate reaffirmation of American support for its old friend and ally, Israel.” This reassessment should also “remind our Administration that while it pursues a policy of making friends in the Middle East, Israel need not and must not be sacrificed.”

He voiced concern that Americans have “witnessed the American embrace of Arab leaders,” and also expressed anguish “that America’s good friend and ally, Israel, has been placed in a defensive position in spite of tremendous concessions, only to be criticized for not being flexible enough, while the Arabs enjoy a claim as being lovers of peace.”

Commenting on Sen. George McGovern’s newly expressed position favoring a Palestinian Arab state between Jordan and Israel, Dr. Sternstein, said the South Dakota Senator’s view “can do nothing but outrage those who were his supporters in the last (1972) Presidential campaign and all fair-minded Americans who previously looked to him for leadership in American affairs.” The ZOA leader urged McGovern “to rethink his position, to study the problem more deeply.”