Will Ask Gop, Democrats for Platform Plans on Direct Talks, Planes for Israel

The platform committees of both the Republican and Democratic parties will be asked to include in their platform planks on the Middle East a statement of the need for direct peace negotiations between the Arab states and Israel and support for the provision to Israel of “supersonic planes and any other military equipment necessary to enable her to deter threatened aggression.” The request will be made to the Democrats for the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee by Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, its chairman. Irving S. Kane, the Public Affairs Committee’s co-chairman, will make the presentation to the Republicans.

In addition to the insistence on peace talks and military aid, the recommendations will call for economic aid to raise living standards of all the peoples in the region, with specific reference to nuclear desalination projects. They will also call for strengthening of existing legislation and administrative procedures to combat the Arab boycott against Americans who do business with Israel.

The Committee’s proposed plank on military assistance to Israel declares that “we will work for effective disarmament agreements but, in the absence of peace treaties and to give effect to our firm commitment to ensure the survival of Israel, we will provide Israel with supersonic planes and any other military equipment necessary to enable her to deter threatened aggression.” The proposed plank on a negotiated peace stresses as its objectives, the fixing of permanent boundaries, respect for the integrity and independence of the states involved, freedom of navigation for all through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Tiran, promotion of disarmament agreements, facilitating of refugee resettlement, an end to economic boycotts and access for all faiths to the shrines of Jerusalem.