Still another Senator has attacked Secretary of State William P. Rogers’ latest proposals for a settlement of the Middle East conflict. Sen. Alan Cranston. California Democrat, called them “ill advised” and “a danger to peace.” in a statement issued here today. And speaking in Rochester Saturday, Rep. Jonathan Bingham, a Democrat of New York, accused the Nixon Administration of attempting to “appease” the Arabs.
Sen. Cranston said that by implying that U.S. Mideast policy was imbalanced because of American support for Israel, Secretary Rogers “hardened Arab resistance to a peaceful settlement.” He said, “The simple fact of the matter is that the U.S., of all the major powers, has been the only one with a balanced Mideast policy.” Sen. Cranston urged the Nixon Administration to counter Soviet arms supplied to the Arab States “with military and economic assistance to Israel to enable her to maintain parity in arms and to sustain the continuing economic burden of military preparedness.”
Rep. Bingham, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke before the City Club of Rochester. He said, “The basic change in the U.S. position since a year ago is that we have virtually abandoned our support of the Israeli insistence on negotiations between the parties as the only way to achieve a permanent settlement. What is worse,” the Congressman declared, “some of the U.S. proposals are totally unrealistic and call for concessions by the Israelis that they clearly will not accept and should not be asked to accept after the history of the past 20 years.”
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