Ribicoff Would Favor Easier American Loan Terms for Israel

Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D.Conn), told newsmen here last Friday that he would support Israel’s request for easier repayment terms on the aid it will receive from the U.S. to help cover the costs of the Sinai pullback.

Visiting Jerusalem as a member of a special U.S. Economic delegation headed by Robert Strauss Ribicoff said he recognized that the terms as they presently stood would impose a very heavy burden on Israel’s economy. He reportedly said he would favor the proposal that half the aid be made over as a grant and the other half as a loan, at nine percent interest over 30 years. Under the present terms, only $800 million of the $3 billion aid package would be in the form of a grant.

Strauss and Israeli Commerce Minister Gideon Patt, Meanwhile, signed a trade agreement providing for reduction of tariffs and enocouragement of trade through other means. The hope is that this agreement, intended, according to Strauss, as a first step in post-peace economic cooperation, will help narrow the trade gap between Israel and the U.S. which is adverse to Israel.

Strauss said his mission was ordered by President Carter as soon as he had heard from President Anwar Sadat and Premier Menachem Begin about their successful summit meeting in Caior two weeks ago. The delegation visited Egypt first and then flew to Israel. “We have not come to arouse exaggerated expectations, ” Strauss cautioned, “but to open the first pages in a great book that will have to be written in the years to come. ” The delegation included high-ranking U.S. government officials and private businessmen interested in trade and investment opportunities here and in Egypt. Its members reported that Sadat felt Begin’s Cairo visit had created closer personal relations between himself and the Israeli Premier, and had praised Begin for his “courage” in steering Israel through the peace pact.