Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee for President, said in an interview with the Jewish News, of Detroit, that he favored a review of United States immigration laws and a review of United States foreign aid to nations “such as Egypt” whose “commitment to the free world is dubious at best.”
The senator stated his positions in a statement mailed to the Jewish weekly, in reply to a series of questions from Editor-Publisher Philip Slomovitz, sent to the senator on July 20. He did not reply to one of the four questions, which asked his position on United States Senate ratification of the United Nations Genocide convention.
Sen. Goldwater wrote that “for many years” he had been on record in favor of revising the McCarran Walter Act and that he wanted “a complete review of our immigration laws” to determine to what extent “laws written decades ago” were still applicable. He said he also endorsed the Republican platform which pledges immigration legislation permitting families to be reunited, and in a continuation of the “Fair Share” Refugee program. He added that writing equitable immigration laws were complicated, and that “we must move forward with care and deliberation” in any such effort.
In reply to a question as to his views on United States action “in the event of aggressive steps by the UAR and other Arab nations which are continually reiterating that they are determined to destroy Israel,” the senator said he was opposed “to aggression by any nation in any region of the world.” He added: “We Republicans intend to prevent armed conflict in the Middle East, in the Far East, in Africa, in the Americas and in Europe.”
URGES REVIEW OF AID TO EGYPT; REAFFIRMS GOP PLATFORM PLANKS
Adding that he did not want to see the Middle East “develop into another Vietnam or Korea,” he wrote that “to further this goal, I have long been on record in favor of a more discriminating use of American foreign aid, especially in respect to belligerent nations. We should review our aid to many nations–such as Egypt–whose commitment to the free world is dubious at best.”
He added that “our aid has, unfortunately, supported many governments whose approach to political and economic developments is cut closer to a totalitarian than a free pattern.”
He said he was in “wholehearted agreement” with the 1964 Republican platform plank on the Middle East which said: “Respecting the Middle East…we will so direct our economic and military assistance as to help maintain stability in this region and prevent an imbalance of arms.”
Sen. Goldwater also said that the 1960 Republican pledges were “explicitly reaffirmed” in the 1964 platform. The 1960 pledges called for eliminating the obstacles to a lasting peace in the Middle East “including the human problem of the Arab refugees”; an effort to end “transit and trade restrictions, blockades and boycotts”; and to seek freedom of navigation in international waterways, the ending of discrimination against Americans on the “basis of religious beliefs” and an end to the “wasteful and dangerous arms race” in the Middle East.
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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.
