The 1348 delegates at the Republican National Convention are expected to approve with little or no discussion tomorrow afternoon the Middle East plank recommended by the Republican platform committee. All prospects faded today for amendment at the convention to include a provision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
An unimpeachable source said Sen. Jacob Javits of New York, whose Mideast plank recommendation included such an Embassy transfer, will not ask the convention to include it in the official platform. Since Sen. Javits is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the leading Jewish political figure at the convention and ardently pro-Israel, the conclusion appeared inevitable that if he did not seek inclusion of the Embassy transfer proposal, no action will be taken by other friends of Israel on the issue.
Another source said the State Department opposed the transfer proposal and indicated that the language of the Mideast plank, which includes some signs of inducement to the Arabs to move in the direction of accommodation with Israel, was prepared by the State Department. Rogers is believed to have personally examined the Mideast plank and the rest of the platform foreign policy plank.
WEISMAN CLARIFIES STATEMENT
Herman L, Weisman, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told the JTA that he had not proposed to the Republican platform committee–as the heading on his advance statement of prepared testimony said he did–that Israel be admitted for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
He told the JTA that the plank he in fact submitted in Miami Beach declared that to recognize that Israel had “well served the interests of the United States to broaden the base of the collective strength of the free world,” the United States should “deem Israel eligible for the status of an ally of our country in parity with the status enjoyed by members of NATO located in the Mediterranean region of the Middle East and take the necessary steps to negotiate and formalize a suitable alliance with Israel.”
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