A nation-wide drive to mobilize broad support for Israel will be launched tomorrow by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Leaders of the Jewish organizations will meet to inaugurate “an intensified program to tell the American people the facts about the Arab-Israel conflict,” according to Rabbi Israel Miller, chairman of the Conference. Speakers will include Simcha Dinitz, Israeli Ambassador to the United States and Representatives Bella Abzug, Elizabeth Holtzman, Edward I. Koch and Lester L. Wolff, all New York Democrats.
In a statement announcing the meeting, Rabbi Miller declared: “Egypt’s intransigence in refusing to make further progress toward peace has created a whole new situation in the Middle East. Already we hear threats of a ‘jihad’ or holy war from Anwar Sadat and expressions of satisfaction by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Syrian officials that the road to peace has been blocked again. Our meeting will explore the steps that must be taken now to deal with these developments.”
In a “Middle East Memo” commenting on the suspension of Dr. Kissinger’s peace mission, the Presidents Conference declared: “It was Israel that made the major concessions and Egypt that rejected them; Israel that offered to give up territory and Egypt that refused; Israel that asked for peace and Egypt that insisted on continuing the state of war. The failure of the peace talks rests with Egypt. That responsibility is clear and unequivocal. It confirms once again Egypt’s–and the Arab world’s–continuing refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist.”
The “Middle East Memo,” a periodic analysis of current developments affecting U.S. security and Jewish interests, concluded with this projection of how the U.S. would respond to the suspension of Kissinger’s efforts: “The American people will understand who in the Middle East offers concessions for peace and who refuses to renounce war. By the same token, the American people will continue to support the policy of our government in defending America’s strategic interests by providing Israel with the economic, military and political support necessary to deter Arab attack and to keep alive the search for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
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