Fear that Israel may be affected if Congress reduces the $3,500,000,000 Mutual Security Aid program was felt here today following a renewed appeal by President Eisenhower against any cut.
Mr. Eisenhower voiced his appeal at his press conference today. He said any reduction in the proposed foreign program would mean that statesmanship is sinking to a very low level. He added that he could think of no action that would be more detrimental to the U.S. interests than one of reducing Mutual Security Aid to spend more on domestic projects.
The President did not refer specifically to the question of aid for Israel but to the foreign assistance program involving all beneficiaries, throughout the world. An aid reduction affecting Israel would come at the very time Israel is seeking to rally its economic strength to accommodate a new flow of immigration from Rumania.
In the current fiscal year Israel is receiving $7,500,000 special assistance. But her application for a development loan has not yet been approved. Israeli prospects for sustained American assistance at the level of recent years are largely dependent on the fate of pending administration requests to Congress for renewed development loan fund money and the whole Mutual Security program.
Israel, in the last fiscal year, received $7,500,000 in special assistance and a development loan of $15,000,000. This was in addition to many millions worth of surplus agricultural products and loans from the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
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