Javits Tells ZOA United States Should Sell Phantoms Now to Israel

Sen. Jacob K. Javits. New York Republican, voicing “a feeling of frustration” over the delay of the Administration in providing Phantom jets to Israel, told the 71st annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America here today that the United States should sell the supersonic warplanes to Israel immediately. He said that the Administration “must no longer hesitate to discharge the expressed will of both political parties and of both Houses of Congress — and the will of the American people.”

He noted that the Administration was selling the Phantoms to Iran but that not even “promises of delivery” had been given to Israel and asked “Why this double standard in the Middle East?” Stressing that the time gap between order of Jets and delivery could be as much as two years, the Senator added that “the Arab militarists say that by 1970 they will be sufficiently rearmed by the Soviets to commence a final round against Israel.” Citing the Soviet naval buildup in the Mediterranean, he also called for a NATO standing naval force there.

Rep. John W. McCormack, House Speaker, told the ZOA that Israel should not return “an inch of soil” to the Arabs until “they are ready to make an honorable peace.” He said it was historically unique that the “vanquished”; in the Middle East “have sought to lay down the terms of peace to the conquerors” and that “apparently, Israel’s unforgiveable crime was its refusal to lie down and die and its extraordinary capacity for self-defense.” He denounced “cowardly” Arab terrorism, including the hijacking of the El Al plane. He declared, in reference to criticisms of Israel’s reprisal actions, that “it is apparently proper for Arab terrorists to make inroads into Israeli territory but utterly improper for Israelis to enter Arab territory in hot pursuit of a vicious foe.”

Gerald Ford, House Republican leader, said in a message to the convention that the Republican leadership of Congress continued to be “concerned by the failure” of the Administration to provide Phantom jets to Israel and to “answer massive Communist arms buildup in the Middle East and Mediterranean.”

The convention heard a charge from ZOA president Jacques Torczyner that “thousands of Jewish school teachers” in New York City faced ultimate expulsion from there jobs because of the anticipated role of Black Power advocates in the scheduled decentralization of the city’s school system. He said Jewish groups must mobilize “in defense of Jewish rights” and “stop appeasing militant Necros in an attack on “a new brand of anti-Semitism — black anti-Semitism.” Declaring that Negro extremists were “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel,” he charged that “extremist Black Power is the order of the day” and predicted that the civil struggle would take “a more violent turn and endanger the position of the Jew in America.” He criticized Jewish groups for alleged failure to protest destruction of Jewish property in racial rioting and alleged failure to aid victimized Jewish merchants. He also assailed President James Hester of New York University for naming John Hatchett as director of its new Afro-American Center, accusing the Negro teacher of anti-Semitism. Mr. Torczyner also criticized former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and “top Jewish contributors” to the university for “dangerous appeasement of anti-Semitic forces” and condemned Black Power leaders for alliances with Arab student groups.