Howard Squadron, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, believes there is no one in the White House who “really understands Israel,” appreciates its fears and recognizes why it is prepared to engage in preemptive military strikes.
While “there is great sympathy for Israel” in the Reagan Administration, “there is no comprehension that Israel is in any real danger, and no willingness to accept Israel’s own evaluation of its danger.” Squadron said in an interview last Sunday night an L’Chayim, a “radio-magazine” program hosted by Rabbi Mark Golubon WMCA.
He attributed the absence of understanding to a lack of “foreign policy experience” in the White House. According to Squadron, the only top level Administration people who do understand these matters are Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Jeane Kirkpatrick, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
SAYS ISRAEL MIGHT LAUNCH PREEMPTIVE STRIKE
Squadron said there was an increasing possibility that Israel would launch a preemptive strike into south Lebanon as the date for its withdrawal from Sinai approaches because of the arms build-up in Syria, possibly in Jordan, and in southern Lebanan.
That could happen, not because the Syrians attack, but because the Israelis decide that the build-up of forces is so frightening, and that the United States and the French and the British and the Germans and whomever else, by providing weapons to the immediate Arab world surrounding Israel, are presenting such a threat to Israel that Israel has to do something,” Squadron said.
He said that if the Israelis perceive that the U.S. cannot defuse the situation, as with the Palestine Liberation Organization in south Lebanon, then the U.S. will “have to expect the Israelis to do something about it — and they have to back them up, not get worried about it.”
On the other hand, if the U.S. was not accelerating the concerns of the Israelis by supplying arms and by threatening to supply more arms, it would be possible for the U.S. to say to Israel, ‘Don’t take this action. We are going to see to it that nothing comes of this’.”
CASTIGATES THE PENTAGON
Squadron contended that there are “many people” in the Pentagon who are “prepared to disregard Israeli senitivities … who consider Israel not so much a strategic asset, except in time of war, but a strategic liability that is a burden.”
He accused Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger of conveying “that Pentagon view to the White House, because he’s got a close longtime personal relationship with the White House people.” According to Squadron, “What you have is foreign policy being formulated both at the Pentagon and at the State Department with each of the formulations having an equal opportunity to become foreign policy.”
Squadron also expressed the view that while President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt will seek to reestablish relations with the rest of the Arab world, “he says he will not do so under any circumstances at the expense of Camp David or peace with Israel” and “I do believe him.”
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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.
