Ronald Reagan has proposed that the Republican Party platform should declare that compromises are required for a settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict. Reagan, who is challenging President Ford for the Republican nomination for the Presidency also expressed comments on Soviet Jewry, Lebanon and the school prayer issue in a message to the Republican platform committee in Kansas City which is working on the party’s policy statement for adoption at the Republican National convention next week.
Reagan’s proposals on the Middle East were contained in three sentences: “in the Middle East, the United States should stand ready to contribute to a just and durable peace. Such a peace must absolutely assure the continued security and survival of the State of Israel with recognize boundaries accepted by all parties. At the same time, it must respect the legitimate needs and rights of the Palestinian Arabs.”
The text of Reagan’s policy position was made available to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency yesterday by Peter Hanneford, of Los Angeles, research director for the Reagan campaign. Hanneford also provided a statement expanding on Reagan’s views in response to a request from the JTA on how the former California Governor felt on several issues of particular interest to the Jewish community.
In his statement on the Middle East to the JTA. Reagan said that “a reasonable and just solution can only be reached by the parties them selves, negotiating in good faith” and that “compromises will be required on both sides to properly protect the rights and position of the Jewish people while at the same time respecting the legitimate needs of the Palestinian Arabs.”
A SECURE ISRAEL IS A MUST
Repeating his statement to the GOP committee about the need to assure the survival of Israel within secure and recognized boundaries, Reagan declared that “The United States must maintain its support and commitment to this moral principle and must constantly encourage all other nations to do the same. The United Nations can help promote a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict, provided it accords fair treatment to both sides and does not allow its sessions to be used as a forum for one-sided propaganda attacks.”
On the Lebanese conflict, Reagan said that U.S. “leadership” is “absent” and “Syrian enforcement of a cease-fire could prove helpful provided it does not mask designs on the southern portion of Lebanon which borders on Israel.”
EMIGRATION IS BASIC HUMAN RIGHT
In his statement to the JTA, Hanneford said “on the matter of emigration of Soviet Jewry, Gov. Reagan believes that it is a basic human right that individuals should be able to emigrate to other countries. As President he would favor policies designed to encourage all nations to recognize this right.”
Reagan’s statement to the Republican platform committee also said that “school prayer is a major important family issue. Children should be permitted to take part in non-denominational prayer in school if that is the wish of the parents of that community. Our platform should recognize this right of local choice.”
On abortion, which has become a major issue in the platform committee, Reagan wrote the committee members that “in preserving the family, we must recognize once and for all that to perform an abortion is to take a human life” and “the federal government has no business whatever underwriting abortions.”
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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.
