President Reagan’s “Star Wars” defense plan is “vital” to the defense of Israel, a nuclear physicist who is an advisor to Reagan on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), asserted here last night.
“With SDI, the deterrent force of the U.S. will keep Israel safe,” Dr. Robert Jastrow of Dartmouth College, told some 160 persons attending the 7th annual dinner of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) at the Regent Hotel. “Soviet expansionism, particularly in the Middle East, will be substantially reduced.”
Jastrow added that “Israel with its current defense system, could never achieve such a deterrent.” Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, while in Europe last week for a NATO meeting, said Israel is one of the countries that would be asked to cooperate in the development of the SDI.
During the dinner, Rep. Jack Kemp (R.NY) was presented with JINSA’s Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award for his “outstanding defense of freedom and democracy and his commitment to the security of the U.S. and Israel.”
Kemp called Israel “NATO’s southern tier” and said both “American and Israel are critical to the free world.” He stressed that it is important to remember that “Israel needs a strong America for it to survive but also that America cannot be strong without a strong Israel.”
Sol Stern was re-elected president and Herbert Fierst was re-elected chairman of the board of JINSA which was founded in 1976 to explain the links between the U.S. national security and Israel’s security.
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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.
