While officially declining to comment on Israel’s five-point proposal for peace with the Arab countries, State Department sources unofficially indicated today that they see in Israel’s suggestions “a constructive attitude” and a “step in the right direction.”
Officials in the government said they were encouraged that Israel had begun to lay stress on peace moves as desired by the State Department rather than placing the main emphasis on requests for arms that “might cause an arms race.”
Senator Irving M. Ives of New York and New York State Attorney General Jacob K. Javits, two prominent Republicans, today conferred with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and urged him to act favorably on the sale of American arms to Israel and on a U.S. security commitment toward Israel. Both men came away with the impression that Secretary Dulles considers the Israel issue a matter of prime importance. They said he listened with the “greatest interest” to the report they made to him on their recent visits to Israel.
Mr. Javits got the impression that Secretary Dulles considers the Israel arms list a matter of “highest urgency,” but there was no indication when he might act on it. He told newsmen that he left Israel with feeling of urgency, reporting that Israel’s “grim” mood stems from the Communist-Egyptian arms deal. Israel, he said, needs immediate commitments on security and implementation of the Tripartite Declaration of 1950 which undertakes to maintain a balance of military power. Sen. Ives made it plan that he was in “full agreement” with Mr. Javits.
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