Andrew Young, the United States Ambassador to the United Nation, assured the World Jewish Congress today that the “principles, goals and objectives of this Administration are identical with those of President Truman in 1948.”
In a speech in which he pointedly avoided discussing U.S. Middle East policy, Young said that “peace in 1978 certainly may require more understanding and more risk” than previously. But he suggested less concern about the “risks of seeking peace” than “those that certainly go with war.”
Young, whose remarks were received in silence throughout, said that in a world “where every word is viewed as a tilt in policy,” he was the wrong person to be here today. He said he has “an overwhelming suspicion of statescraft” and “I would really not like to represent my government on this occasion but to say what is on my mind. You will hear from the President tomorrow,” and “that’s what counts.”
Speaking of the UN, Young said there is an interrelationship between Israel’s problem and those of the U.S. With the U.S. “identified as Israel’s powerful friend, everyone that has a quarrel with the United States but can’t get to us because we are too powerful, takes it out on Israel,” Young said.
BAKER CALLS FOR CLEAR MIDEAST POLICY
At an earlier session today of the WJC conference, Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, the Republican Minority Leader, called on the Carter Administration to “remove any doubts where the U.S. stands on the continued peace and existence of Israel.” Baker said he was “deeply troubled” over the “shift in the Administration’s posture because of the uncertainty it arouses in the minds of millions of Americans who are deeply committed to the peaceful survival of Israel.”
He assailed the U.S.-Soviet joint statement on the Middle East of Oct. I and declared: “Even more important than the perhaps erroneous assumption that the U.S. is casting aside the only democratic state in the Middle East is the meaning of this statement to the national interests of the U.S.
Baker said that while the U.S. must recognize Soviet power where it exists and negotiate with the Soviet Union to reduce the danger of nuclear war, “I believe even more strongly that a Soviet presence in the Middle East would endanger the survival of Israel and the stability of the Arab states that dominate the area. The U.S. cannot afford upheaval along its strategic lifelines of the Middle East,” he said.
Baker said he also was troubled by the Administration’s “obvious pressure to set a deadline” for a Geneva conference. “Geneva must not become a symbol for diplomatic misadventure. The U.S. can best serve prospects for peace in the Middle East by continuing the many sided dialogue between ourselves and the Israeli and Arab governments,” he said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
