Rep. Bertram Podell, New York Democrat, warned that if a new war broke out in the Middle East, Soviet jets in Egypt would be transferred to the American-evacuated Wheelus Air Force Base in Libya “so that they may bomb the cities of Israel without mercy.” Rep. Podell also asserted that “Israel will be unable to attack these planes while they are on the ground because it would risk a war with its once great ally, France, which has declared itself the protector of the Wheelus Air Force Base.” He again criticized President Nixon’s Mideast policy and his decision to not supply additional jet warplanes to Israel at this time and said Arabs would never seek a peaceful solution to the Mideast conflict until “such time as they believe that any alternate course will mean their eventual destruction.”
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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.
