The top leadership of American Jewry will gather in Washington Nov. 29 and 30 for a national policy meeting to determine a future course of action in view of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s new threat of immediate war with Israel and the current US State Department policies which encourage anti-Israel extremities in Arab countries.
The meeting has been called by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Speaking for the Presidents Conference, Rabbi Israel Miller and Jacob Stein, acting co-chairmen, said today that “President Sadat’s threat of war with Israel highlights the procrastinations and vacillations of the State Department, especially in halting shipment of vital aircraft to Israel. They are giving aid and comfort to Sadat and to Israel’s enemies by the indication that the military and political balance has been tipped against Israel.”
The two Jewish leaders further declared that “by withholding these supplies from Israel the State Department encourages an extremist and aggressive attitude in the Arab countries, thus weakening the prospects for peace negotiations.” Continuing, Rabbi Miller and Stein declared that “It is obvious that any US-imposed plan for settling the issue is doomed to failure. Only the parties themselves can negotiate a peace settlement.”
The halt of aircraft shipments to Israel “Is unconscionable in view of the admitted vast shipments of the most modern aircraft and missiles to Egypt by the Soviet Union,” they stated. “The presence of planes carrying sophisticated air-to-ground missiles in Egypt, as recently disclosed by the State Department itself, bodes danger and threatens not only Israel but peace in the Middle East as well.”
The State Department moves against Israel “fly in the face of the vast majorities of both houses of the Congress, speaking on behalf of the American people, which have time and again gone on record supporting shipment of the aircraft that Israel requires for her defense,” they declared. The Washington policy meeting will be hold at the international headquarters of B’nai B’rith.
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