Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said in post-election comments that American willingness to continue support of Israel is based on the Jewish State’s belief in and practice of freedom, its geographic position in an area of danger of U.S. Soviet confrontation and because it refuses to condone terrorism.
“Israel is an important country in the world because of the example it sets.” Rumsfeld said, pointing to the Entebbe rescue operation. “Here is a country that against all odds demonstrated that it didn’t believe in terrorism, that it didn’t want to condone terrorism, that it would not sit still and allow that to happen, and I think that’s an important lesson for people who believe in freedom, and it’s good for the United States to see it and it’s good for the rest of the world to see it.”
His remarks came in a multi-faceted interview with Martin Agronsky that has been taped for telecasting tomorrow night at 10 p.m. on Public Broadcasting Service stations. A copy of the transcript was made available by Station WETA here to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to quote from it in advance of delivery.
SIGNIFICANCE OF TIMING
The significance of Rumsfeld’s evaluation of U.S. commitment to Israel, which he said is “a sensible policy” and will recommend both to his successor and to President-elect Jimmy Carter, is in its timing and his personal potential political strength in the Republican Party when he leaves the Cabinet in January for an as yet unannounced post. Rumsfeld, at 44, has already served four terms as a GOP Congressman from Illinois and as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO. President Ford named him Defense Secretary succeeding James Schlesinger last Nov. 20.
The timing of Rumsfeld’s evaluation was noted by Agronsky who told the Secretary that “were we still in the midst of the (Presidential election) campaign, your remark would probably be evaluated in political terms, but the campaign is over and you really feel that this is the way to evaluate the American commitment to Israel.”
Rumsfeld replied, “I have every reason to believe that it’s the policy that this country will continue as it has in the past through successive Presidents of both parties.” When Agronsky suggested that support of Israel is “a burden that we accepted, in effect, in terms of our national interest, we’re willing to continue to support,” Rumsfeld responded, “Exactly.” He gave his reasons for U.S. backing of Israel after Agronsky had asked. “Why do we support Israel” when “Israel is a nation of three million people, an island in an Arab ocean of 120 million” and “there are more Arabs and they’ve got the oil?”
VIEW ON MIDEAST SETTLEMENT
Asked for recommendations of a Middle East settlement, such as a U.S.-Soviet guarantee or the Fulbright plan involving a U.S.-Israeli treaty, Rumsfeld replied that from a standpoint of the White House and the State and Defense Departments, “the goal is to keep working, as the United States has, over a period of years, to try to find a formula that works.”
Rumsfeld emphasized that Israel and the Arab countries are sovereign nations and “what will work will be that which they will agree to.” For a settlement to be “durable,” he added, the formula “has to be something that each of them sees as in their interest, and that’s the measure, rather than the extent, of the U.S. role in it.”
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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.
