Support for Israel Was an Issue in the Javits-clark Race

The issue of support for Israel was one of the key factors enabling Sen Jacob K. Javits to win re-election to a fourth term to the United States Senate despite a strong challenge from former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, an anti-establishment Democrat. Javits. a Jew and a Republican, won despite the strong anti-Watergate backlash in New York State as well as the nation, and despite Clark’s image as being unbeholden to special interests because of his $100 limit on campaign contributions.

Throughout the campaign, Javits hit hard at Clark’s position on the Palestinians and in fact made this the pivotal point of his race during the closing weeks. Javits charged that Clark was advocating a Palestinian state on the West Bank and warned that a third state between Israel and Jordan would endanger Israel’s existence.

Clark accused Javits of distorting his stand. He said that his position paper on the Middle East, issued during his primary campaign in Sept., did not call for a separate state on the West Bank but for a Palestinian state that was linked politically with Jordan. He continually emphasized that most Jordanians are Palestinians and most Palestinians are Jordanians. His Mideast paper also stressed U.S. commitment to provide Israel the means to defend herself.

But the issue over the Palestinian state obviously had an effect which was increased by Jewish concern over the United Nations General Assembly’s invitation to the Palestine Liberation Organization to address the Assembly: this despite the fact that Clark, like Javits. had condemned the UN action, and that Clark, again like Javits, spoke out strongly against it at the protest rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Monday.

JAVITS’ RECORD WAS A PLUS

Clark also ran a series of ads in Jewish newspapers titled, “Ramsey Clark sounded like a speaker at a UJA meeting,” a quotation from an article by Shlomo Shamir in Haaretz. Clark also pointed to his participation in Paris last spring at an international conference called to focus world attention to the plight of Syrian and Iraqi Jews.

Javits, in addition to hitting hard on the issue of Israel’s survival, had a long record of support for Israel in the Senate. He was also one of the three Senators who negotiated with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger on the agreement which may lead to large-scale emigration of Soviet Jews. There was also some resentment in the Jewish community toward Clark calling Javits a “Nixon thug.”

Jewish voters supporting Clark were reported to be young, chiefly in the under-30 age group. Clark did have the support of Jewish leaders particularly Reform and some Conservative rabbis, while Javits had the backing of Orthodox leaders. Clark did well in areas such as Manhattan’s Upper West Side and the Greenwich Village area which have large Jewish populations who are usually younger, better educated and more liberal than other New York Jews.