President Johnson has been rebuffed in his approaches to the Soviet Union for a curb on arms shipments to the Middle East and, as a result, “Mr. Johnson is now expected to permit the sale of 50 F-4 Phantom jets to Israel before the end of the year,” Benjamin Welles reported from Washington in the New York Times today. According to Mr. Welles, the Soviets replied to the President’s proposal that it would cooperate only when there is “peace” between the Arab states and Israel — presumably along Arab lines.
Mr. Welles reported that delivery of the jets, which were requested by Israel’s Prime Minister Levi Eshkol at his meeting with President Johnson in Texas last January, will be authorized once the Presidential elections are over and the transaction can be divorced from local politics.
Today’s report contradicted a report in the New York Times Sept. 15 that President Johnson had decided not to sell the planes to Israel. White House sources denied that report and cited the President’s statements after Mr. Eshkol’s visit in which he promises to keep Israel’s defense needs “under active and sympathetic” review in the light of all relevant factors, including the shipment of arms “by others” to the area. “The Soviet Government’s continuing refusal to cease rearming Israel’s enemies is now a matter of grave concern here, Government sources said,” according to Mr. Welles.
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