ZOA Leaders Warn of Danger to Israel in U.S. Sale of Arms to Arabs

Two leaders of the Zionist Organization of America warned yesterday that the inclusion of F-4 Phantom jets in the reported U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait poses dangers for Israel and the military balance in the Middle East.

Herman L. Weisman. ZOA president, told a meeting of the organization’s National Executive Committee at the New York Hilton here that the Arabs’ acquisition of Phantoms in the two $500 million sales “would reduce Israel’s efficacy to defend itself and retard the prospects of peace negotiations.” He noted that a purported rationale for the projected arms deals is to give Saudi Arabia and Kuwait “the capacity to protect themselves against possible actions by other Arab states.”

Weisman rejected this, however, declaring that “it is beyond belief that Phantom aircraft is necessary for Arabs to defend themselves against Arabs.” At the same time, he said. President Nixon and the State Department “deserve high praise for their forthright stand against any tampering with Security Council Resolution 242 at the forthcoming sessions of the United Nations.”

Jacques Torczyner, a past president of the ZOA, said in a separate address that “in the eyes of the Arabs, Israel’s Phantoms are invincible.” The Arabs’ purchase of Phantoms is therefore dangerous to Israel, he said, because “it will end the arms balance in the Near East and seriously increase the possibility of renewed hostilities.”

Torczyner, who recently returned from Israel, reported also that the people there are worried over the “weakening of President Nixon’s power and influence” as a result of the Watergate affair. He said that while the Israelis admire the United States for “publicly exposing and investigating the wrongdoings of people in high places.” they are concerned over a possible lessening of the President’s power because of “their reliance on his commitments” to Premier Golda Meir.