The Zionist Organization of America sent a “Mailgram” to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance saying it was “deeply disturbed at the timing and content” of a State Department statement issued Monday “advocating representation of Palestinians at Geneva which Israel has already accepted in principle as a part of any Arab national delegation.”
According to the message, signed by ZOA president Joseph P. Sternstein, the State Department’s announcement “is clearly an implied endorsement of the PLO terrorists which Israel has rightly refused to deal with “and” is a radical change in U.S. policy.”
The ZOA complained that the statement was issued on the eve of Rosh Hashanah “when the Jewish community is immobilized” and likened that “with the Arab attack on Israel on Yom Kippur four years ago.” The ZOA claimed that “This statement undermines Israel’s position and escalates Arab intransigence just prior to the visit to the United States and the United Nations of Israel’s Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan as arranged during your (Vance’s) recent visit to the Middle East.”
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