Two Republican Senators have lashed out at the Carter Administration for allegedly trying to sidetrack a possible Egyptian-Israeli settlement in favor of a “comprehensive” agreement at a Geneva type conference. Sens. Robert Dole of Kansas and Lowell Weicker, of Connecticut, accused the Administration of following an obstructionist course in speeches to Zionist and pro-Israel groups this week.
Dole, who received the Louis D. Brandeis Award from the Baltimore district of the Zionist Organization of America, told a ZOA audience in the Pikesville Armory last night that “the Administration’s line, from the moment Prime Minister Begin finished his speech in the Knesset, has been that Israel jeopardizes the peace initiative by not announcing concessions.”
Dole charged that the Administration’s course is “more pernicious” than the proposal by United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to hold Middle East peace talks under UN auspices. He also charged that the Administration “now works through the media to insist that its role will be one of pushing Israel to be ‘flexible.’ It is precisely this kind of meddling which has robbed this government of the moral and political credibility to exert any influence whatsoever over Israel.”
He said a possible reason for such activity by the U.S. is “to position ourselves with the Arab world so that we can claim credit for urging upon Israel concessions which she might have been prepared to make in any case.” He claimed that this would convince the Arab states “that they should take an unreasonably hard line toward Israel in the hope that U.S. pressure on Israel will force concessions which may not have been gained otherwise.”
SAYS ARAB RADICALS AIDED
Weicker, addressing the Philadelphia chapter of the Technion Society of America earlier this week, claimed that U.S. insistence on “the comprehensive approach gave the most radical elements in the Arab world veto power over the actions of the most moderate.” Seldom, he said, has the U.S. government acted “with such blind, arrogant incompetence.” He urged American Jewry to provide Egypt with the kind of “moral and material support” they have provided Israel and to reach out to Egypt “in recognition of a common purpose.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Dante B. Fascell (D.Fla.), hailed President Carter’s handling of the current diplomatic situation in the Middle East but indicated approval of a separate Egyptian-Israeli peace should that become likely.
WALDHEIM EXPLAINS HIS CALL FOR TALKS
In a related development, Waldheim, responding to a complaint by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has defended his call for Mideast peace talks as “simply a suggestion” to help convene a Geneva conference “in a constructive atmosphere.”
Waldheim’s letter was released by Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Schindler had sent a telegram to the UN official assailing the proposal and charging that any Middle East talks attended by the Palestine Liberation Organization–which had been invited by Waldheim–would “sabotage the momentum toward peace.”
Waldheim in his letter stated, in part, that “my suggestion for a preparatory meeting for the Geneva conference…is simply a suggestion that all parties consider the value of a meeting of all those invited to Cairo in order to engage, if it is so agreed, in a follow-up action to facilitate the convening of the Geneva conference in a constructive atmosphere.”
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