Pointing out that both Israel and Jordan used American Patton tanks in the recent conflict, Sen. Frank Church, Idaho Democrat, said today in a Senate speech that the United States should bar further gifts or sales of arms to the countries of the Middle East.
The Senator, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that, as in the Indian-Pakistani clash of less than two years ago, “American tanks manned by Jordanians met American tanks manned by Israelis” outside Old Jerusalem. He said that Israel received $28,000,000 worth of U.S. arms in what he described as an attempt to “exercise a restraining influence by a judicious distribution of our weapons.” Since the end of World War II, he said, the United States has doled out $322,000,000 in military aid to the Arab nations that attacked Israel.
Sen. Joseph Clark, Pennsylvania Democrat and also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, voiced substantial agreement with Sen. Church on the need to limit the flow of American arms abroad. Sen. Clark envisaged an “international rescue mission” for Egypt, provided that there be “no more arms for Nasser” from other nations.
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