Presidential Counsel Robert J. Lipshutz told the annual meeting of the Zionist Organization of America’s executive committee in Washington last weekend that “a large percentage of the Palestinian people feel they have been deprived of their rights and whether such an attitude is justified or not, we would ignore this situation at our peril.”
Lipshutz, who is one of President Carter’s closest advisors and presides over White House staff meetings, stated that “the resolution of this problem is of utmost importance to the State of Israel, to the Arab countries, to the United States and indeed to the world.”
REFLECTING HIS PERSONAL THOUGHTS
Emphasizing he was reflecting “my own personal thoughts,” Lipshutz said he found “important analogies” between the feelings of the Hanafi Moslems who last week seized three buildings here and held 134 persons as hostages for 39 hours and the “hundreds of millions of people in this world, particularly Africa and Asia” who “feel they are deprived of an equal opportunity to life as compared with other peoples of the world.”
He noted that the Hanafis have “a belief that our system has not properly rendered justice” to those persons for the 1973 slayings of the wife and children of the Hanafi leader, Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, by what the Hanafis claim was a rival Muslim group. Discussing the “spectacularly successful teamwork” in the release of the hostages, Lipshutz drew attention to the participation of the ambassadors of Egypt, Pakistan and Iran and “the deep religious beliefs of the person (Khaalis) who held our people captive.”
He suggested that while in the past “deep religious convictions might have been the basis for strife between persons of different beliefs,” they “might well become a common bond” and bring together “all of the people of the world.”
3-POINT MIDEAST PROGRAM URGED
In another address at the meeting which marked the ZOA’s 80th anniversary, Rep. Clement Zablocki (D. Wisc.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, urged a three-point program for the Middle East, including a formal American security commitment to Israel. He urged that the U.S. scale down its sale of arms to the Mideast and that peace efforts “complement the reduction.”
In addition. Zablocki suggested an economic development bank for the area by a consortium, including the Arab states. The Palestinian question, he said, “is the heart of the conflict and it will not go away,” adding that “unless the issue is faced by all sides unemotionally it will not be solved.” ZOA committee members peppered both Lipshutz and Zablocki with questions, some tinged with criticism.
Rabbi Joseph P. Sternstein, ZOA president, said the latest U.S. expressions on Mideast policy by President Carter and the State Department “can only lead to confusion.” He urged the Administration, Congress and the American public to “firmly dispel the myth of the Palestinians as an historical and national entity and to reject the concept of yet another Arab state located between Israel and Jordan.”
Declaring that it is “absolutely necessary” to “convey the truth of the American Jewish community’s overwhelming support” of Israel’s position of rejecting negotiations with the terrorists, Sternstein observed that “unless we do this, there will be a continued exploitation of a fictionalized division in our ranks.”
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