Jewish Leaders Rap Carter

Jewish leaders accused President Carter over the weekend of abandoning his role as a mediator in the Middle East peace negotiations and siding with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Their anger and dismay was voiced after Carter called Sadat “generous” and forthcoming in the negotiations and said the signing of an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty is now “up to Israel.”

This view is expected to be strongly expressed when Jewish leaders meet with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in Washington Tuesday at Vance’s invitation to discuss the latest developments in the peace negotiations. They are expected to urge the U.S. to return to the role of mediator.

Theodore R. Mann, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, declared that American Jews had supported the Camp David agreements based on what Carter had said publicly to all Americans and “privately” to Jewish leaders that “peace was not to be a mere absence of war, it was-to include full diplomatic, cultural and economic relations, such that it would have a fair chance to endure.”

Mann charged Carter was backing Sadat’s demands while Israel “has imposed not a single new condition” on its promise “to withdraw from the Sinai entirely.” He added that this is why “I must express deep disappointment and dismay that the Administration has supported Egyptian conditions which dilute the nature, quality and permanence of the Egyptian commitment to peace.”

Albert D. Chernin, executive vice-president of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, noted that “We are deeply concerned by the shift of the Administration from that of mediator to that of advocate of Egypt’s new demands.” He charged “the Administration supports a position that would make the Egyptian-Israeli treaty hostage to those who are opposed to the Camp David agreements.”

In a telegram to Carter, Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, chairman of the World Zionist Organization-American Section, charged that “The United States has apparently abandoned even the pretext of evenhandedness and is allying itself with Egypt and against the security and viability of Israel. It is also becoming clear that the pressure tactics which the Administration had promised never would be used are now being wielded with a heavy hand.”

SUMMIT ACCORDS REWRITTEN

Bertram Gold, executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, urged Carter to “continue his efforts toward peace in the Middle East based on the agreements reached at Camp David, and not to superimpose on those agreements the added demands that Egypt has proposed since that conference, and that Israel has found it necessary to reject.” He charged that since Camp David there has been a “virtual rewriting” of the agreements to include the “linkage” issue which was not mentioned in the Camp David agreements.

Maxwell E. Greenberg, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said that the President was being “unfair and one-sided” in rebuking Israel. He noted, “When Israel agreed two weeks ago to the U.S. package, President Carter made no comment. Now that Egypt has made additional conditions, the President imprudently, I believe, blames Israel.” Greenberg added that comments by the President, as well as those by Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D. W. Va.), “who, in effect, threatened Israel with a cutoff of U.S. aid, heighten suspicion and present frightening obstacles to the tenuous road to peace.”

Howard M. Squadron, president of the American Jewish Congress, said the AJCongress “cannot understand, either in terms of justice between the parties or the national interest of the U.S., why the Administration has now abandoned the role of impartial mediator which has earned it world-wide credit in favor of partisan, one-sided advocacy which can only impair American standing, reputation and credibility–and with it the chance of our government to continue to play a creative role in that part of the world.”

Rabbi Saul I. Teplitz, president of the Synagogue Council of America, in a telegram to Carter, accused the President of trying “to force Israel to accept terms demanded by President Sadat” that Israel cannot accept.

Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, charged that “American policy in the Middle East is now openly siding with Egypt and publicly appeasing Saudi Arabia. Both sides imperil the security of our ally Israel– and our own as well.”

Ivan J. Novick, president of the Zionist Organization of America, declared that by siding with Egypt, the U.S. has made “problematic” whether it can continue to play a role in helping to success-fully achieve an Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement. Bernard Backer, president of The Workmen’s Circle, told some 1200 guests attending the 60th annual banquet of The Workmen’s Circle Schools that the Carter Administration should “keep the door open for additional Camp David-type negotiations–even if the site is other than Camp David.”