Israel was not affected by cuts made in the Administration’s foreign aid program by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, it was learned today. Although the overall bill was slashed by more than a billion dollars, sums requested for the Near East were not touched. Thus far, the House version of the bill still contains a proposed allocation of $76,000,000 in aid for Jewish refugees in Israel plus $3,000,000 in technical assistance for the Jewish State.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee reduced Israel’s portion by about ten million dollars. In keeping with a general “across-the-board” slash of 12.66 percent in the entire foreign aid program, the Senate Armed Services Committee announced that it would start hearings tomorrow with testimony from Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, and Robert A. Lovett, Secretary of Defense, as it undertook a review of the program ordered by the Senate. The Senate bill was referred to the Armed Services Committee after the Foreign Relations Committee had sent the bill to the floor.
The questioning of proposed American aid to Israel by a number of members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was characterized today as “gratuitous” by pro-Zionist sources in Congress. One source said some of the remarks indicated the “penetration of anti-Israel propaganda” and that it showed that “the reservoir of goodwill toward Israel might be running out.”
A report made known by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Mutual Security Program said it is “possible” that “plans to develop a Middle East Command to be closely integrated with SHAPE may come to fruition during the year.” At the present time, the report said, “no military assistance funds have been programed for the Arab states or Israel.” The report said that in the event of the formation of a Middle East Command to be closely integrated with SHAPE, military assistance, including training and war materiel, will be provided under the terms of the Act.
The Committee reported that “the political climate in the Near East which has so far delayed negotiations for the resettlement of the refugees has not changed as much during the past year as had been hoped. The Committee said that it “cannot stress enough its urgent conviction that the settlement of the Arab refugees must be accomplished in the near future.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
