Nixon 1971-72 Budget Includes Bid for Funds for Arms Sales to Israel

The Nixon Administration’s proposed budget for the 1971-72 fiscal year includes a recommendation for an increase of $310 million in foreign military sales to provide “for the inclusion of the request for Israel and for certain other countries’ programs.” The proposed budget also indicates that of the $500 million in military credit sales approved for Israel by Congress last year, about $375 million was to be spent by the end of 1971 and the remaining $125 million in 1972. No information was available from the White House executive officers, where the budget was prepared, on the new-money sum to be requested for Israel or on which other countries would be included in the over-all fund request of $510 million. It was understood, however, that the sums for each country will be requested separately.

Sen. Henry M. Jackson, Democrat of Washington and a leading proponent of aid to Israel, said Sunday after the proposed budget had been sent to Congress that he was “dismayed by the failure of the Administration’s new budget to use the broad authority to extend military credits to Israel that was overwhelmingly voted by the last Congress.” Sen. Jackson, a member of the Armed Service Committee, formulated Sect. 501 of the Defense Procurement Act, giving the President broad authority to approve large-scale military aid credits for Israel. He criticized the Administration’s having “chosen to treat Israel’s pressing military requirements in the routine manner of the Foreign Military Sales Act.” On Sunday, Sen. Jackson estimated that the new budget proposed $582 million in military aid to 15 countries, including Israel, but that sum is now superseded by the official figures.