Presidents Conference Says U.S. Arms Policy Toward Israel is Example of Carrot and Stick Approach

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said today that it was “profoundly disturbed by reports that our country might now limit preferred nations status in arms exports to countries which have formal security treaties with the U.S., a policy that would deprive Israel of “such preferred nations status in the future.” (See related story P. I)

In a statement issued here, Rabbi Alexander Schindler, chairman of the Presidents Conference, urged that this policy “should be abandoned.” He characterized it as an “example of the ‘carrot and stick’ approach to Israel which Jimmy Carter rightfully denounced when he was a candidate for the Presidency” after “expressions by the previous Administration which placed the American commitment to Israel’s survival in doubt.”

Schindler said that “The reported change in U.S. arms export rules would bring about precisely the situation Mr. Carter warned against” when he accused the previous Administration of ‘maneuvers…bound to produce… both failure in negotiations and suspicion among its participants.'”

Schindler said the Carter Administration’s objective of reducing world arms traffic “is highly commendable but unless there are agreements with other countries at an overall reduction in arms sales, our country’s policy will result in penalizing our closest and most reliable friend.” He claimed that the “Unilateral reduction in arms sales to Israel–which has no other source of military supply essential to its security–may be likened to unilateral disarmament.”

Schindler warned that “America’s traditional commitment to Israel’s security and survival–a commitment that President Carter has expressed on numerous occasions and in eloquent terms–can only be jeopardized by any action that is bound to be interpreted as a diminution of that commitment.”