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U.S. Charged with Inviting Arab Military Acts Against Israel

April 12, 1962
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Rep. Seymour Halpern, New York Republican, charged today that a new U.S. policy has emerged for the Near East, increasing war danger there because it “invites renewed Arab military transgressions against Israel while warning Israel not to fight back.”

In a telegram to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Rep. Halpern pointed out that “just a few days after reports were published that the U.S. Executive Department was seeking to improve relations with the Arabs, especially Egypt’s Nasser and the New Syrian regime, “the United States cosponsored a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel.”

Rep, Halpern asked Secretary Rusk to alert American diplomats to impress on the Arabs that further attacks on Israel will not be condoned. He was concerned lest the Arabs interpret the resolution which condemned one side in “an obviously two-sided dispute” as a green light for new attacks against Israel. He warned that such a conclusion by the Arabs might tempt them to new aggression and ignite a general war.

Rep. Hal pern said that when we “cynically court Arab favor at Israel’s expense–we are also courting global disaster.” He asked why the State Department ignored Syrian provocations and murder of Israelis by Syria’s Soviet-made guns but “considered it a threat to world peace when Israelis fought back in legitimate self-defense.”

Rep. William Ryan, a New York Democrat, in a speech on the House floor, criticized the U.S. role in the censure action labeling it “regrettable that the only tangible result of recent U.S. policy in the Middle East is a resolution which is negative in approach and which does not in any way aid in the search for peace in that area.” Rep. Ryan said that U.S. Middle Eastern policy should be “based on positive plans instead of negative resolutions.”

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