U.S. Policy Policy Shifts Toward PLO May Result in a New Munich

The president of the Workmen’s Circle warned here yesterday that any American foreign policy shifts favorable to the Palestine Liberation Organization “may have dire consequences that may recall the volcanic days of the infamous’s Munich pact. In his year-end report to the National Executive Committee of the Workmen’s Circle, Harold Ostroff declared that “unless America stands fast against appeasement, 1976 can be as fateful for world Jewry and the world as was 1939” when the Munich pact was signed.

He noted that if there will be increasing accommodations by the U.S. to the PLO, or if there are foreign policy adjustments to buttress “the shaky foundations of detente with the Soviet Union,” then Jewish communities even in the United States, “may face severe tests from those who are awaiting precisely such a signal to ignite anti-Semitic manifestations.”

Continuing, Ostroff said: “World Jewry, with Israel as its pivot, may face additional burdens and dangers. Such shifts, as are now indicated, can well set off a series of domestic and foreign actions of retribution against Jews. The UN resolutions equating Zionism with racism may be mere curtain raisers in the drama that 1976 portends.”

He underscored that “it is time for Jewish organizations to close ranks in order to face the consequences we face in 1976. When the Security Council opens its Middle East debate (Jan. 12) the trigger may well be cocked. The targets are clear insofar as the PLO and their friends are concerned.” It is also time, Ostroff added, for a strong labor-liberal coalition to reassert itself in the U.S. to work with Jewish communities at home and abroad “to avert economic and social backlashes from shifts in foreign policy.”