Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller met with six Jewish leaders yesterday and issued a statement declaring he was “deeply concerned regarding the future security of the State of Israel and the United States’ position in the Middle East.” The Republican Governor, a candidate for a fourth term, said that while the “cease-fire and the proposed peace negotiations are important steps,” two steps were “essential” to make those developments “meaningful.” He recommended, first, “A clarification by the United States” of Israeli reports of Egyptian missile deployment in the cease-fire zone and U.S. “assurances that the conditions of the 90-day cease-fire agreement will be complied with,” and second, “Immediate availability of the Phantom and Skyhawk planes and other essential military equipment which Israel has asked the United States to sell them.” Mr. Rockefeller has consistently favored the jet sales. “Without compliance with the conditions of the cease-fire agreement and the availability of planes and materiel to Israel,” the Governor concluded, “meaningful negotiations could well be undermined. Israel must be in a position to negotiate at least from a parity of strength and a feeling of security. The Jewish leaders who met with the Governor were Rabbi Harold I. Saperstein, president of the New York Board of Rabbis; Jacques Torczyner, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Herman Weisman, president of the Jewish National Fund; Samuel Hausman, honorary chairman, and Morris Levinson, president of the New York United Jewish Appeal, and Jack Weiler, chairman of the U.J.A. 1970 Israel Emergency Fund.
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