No change has been made in the military sales credit allocated for Israel in the fiscal 1972 budget for U.S. foreign assistance programs presented today to Congress by President Nixon. Israel will share to an undisclosed extent in the $510 million in military credits ear-marked for all countries during fiscal 1972. The total aid budget amounts to $3.3 billion. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today that all of the $500 million in military sales credits authorized for Israel under the Jackson amendment to the 1971 foreign military sales act has been committed. Expenditures of about $375 million will have been made by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30. The balance of about $125 million will be spent during fiscal 1972. Sen. Henry M.Jackson, author of the amendment, has criticized the new credits available for Israel in fiscal ’72 as being too low. The exact size of the allocation is classified. Sen. Jackson may know the figure or he may feel simply that Israel’s needs cannot be met if it has to share $510 million with all other nations receiving U.S. military sales credit. Supplemental military credits to Israel would require special legislation by Congress. The Jackson amendment, adopted last December, was described as “open-ended.” That meant there was no time limit on the $500 million expenditure. But the last of the money will be used during fiscal 1972.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.