Reports of “some new change of policy” on the part of the Republican Administration and the Republican Congress in relation to Israel and the Arab states are unjustified, Senator Alexander Wiley, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today told Jewish leaders from communities throughout New England attending a New England Emergency Conference for Israel, sponsored by the Israel bond drive.
In a major address on American policy in the Middle East, Senator Wiley urged that officers of Israel’s army be invited to the United States for training to help strengthen Israel’s military machine. He called upon the Arab states to end their economic blockade of Israel and to join in establishing peaceful cooperation to make possible the dynamic development of the entire Mediterranean area.
“The traditional friendship of the United States for Israel remains strong and firm, as it does to all men and all nations of good will,” Senator Wiley, a leading spokesman on foreign affairs for the Eisenhower Administration, told the Conference at the Bradford Hotel here.
“The Eisenhower Administration is deeply aware,” he said, “that Israel is a bastion of freedom–of industrial, agricultural, and military strength for the Middle East. It is the policy of this Administration not only to strengthen Israel but to add to the over-all strength of the area, to improve relations with all the peoples of the Near East.”
PREDICIS INCREASED EXCHANGE OF MILITARY EXPERTS WITH ISRAEL
Expressing the hope “that there will be an increasing exchange of military specialists with Israel,” Senator Wiley pointed out that “United States foreign policy has set as one of its principal objectives the establishment of a Middle East Defense Command. That is why,” he said, “there must be coordinated military defensive planning, backed up by strong defensive forces. I emphasize ‘defensive’ because we certainly don’t want to see arms supplied for defense ever to be used for purposes of aggression among any of the states there.”
Stressing his conviction that “Arab and Jew should and must live in peace side by side,” Senator Wiley urged that “the statesmanship of the West and the statesmanship of the East must find a solution to the present economic blockade by the Arab States against Israel. We do not intend to intarfere as outsiders,” he added, “but we are merely stating a fact when we point out that the blockade stifles economic growth, and causes stagnation throughout an area where there should be dynamic advance to catch up after centuries of relative inertia.”
Sen. Wiley stressed the vital role of Israel Bond funds in speeding Israel’s economic development. “The Israel Bond Issue is of critical importance,” the Wisconsin Senator said. “It must be successful if Israel is to survive. It is a credit to our nation that, as of today, a half million American Christians and Jews have purchased more than $160,000,000 in Israel Bonds. This campaign has a tremend us objective–to assure financial independence for Israel.”
Other speakers at the conference included Arthur Lourie, Consul-General of Israel in the United States; Leon Keyserling, former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and Henry Montor, vice-president of the Israel Bond organization. The meeting was one of a series of regional conferences being held throughout the United States in order to develop the fullest support for Israel’s economy through the Israel Bond drive.
The Jewish leaders present at the Conference worked out a program for the completest possible mobilization of volunteer manpower and resources for the Israel Bond drive, to provide the investment capital required to expand Israel’s industrial and agricultural production and to make possible the exploitation of natural resources as part of the country’s program to achieve economic independence.
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