U.S. Trying to Reduce Aid to Israel, Official Tells Senate Body

The United States is “trying to pursue a downward course in economic assistance to Israel,” the Senate Appropriations Committee was told by a high official of the Foreign Operations Administration. He is Norman S. Paul, Near Eastern Regional Director of the Foreign Operations Admistration.

Mr. Paul told the Committee that the Israelis have made “quite a remarkable recovery economically” due to their own effort, and also due to the aid they received from the United States Government and from American Jewry as well as from Jewish communities in other countries.

The Senate Committee made it known yesterday that it had voted to accept the House–recommended figure of $115,000,000 in economic aid for the Near East. This sum includes an undetermined amount for Israel, estimated at $40,000,000 or less.

Arthur Z. Gardiner, chief politico-economic adviser of the Near Eastern Division of the State Department, testifying before the Committee, implied that Walter Clay Lowdermilk, noted American authority on soil erosion, is favoring Israel for personal gain. Sen. Everett Dirksen, of Illinois, asked if Ambassador Eric Johnston’s Jordan development program followed “the basic pattern set out by Lowdermilk in his books many years ago.” Mr. Gardiner replied:

“Lowdermilk, sir, was an employe of the Jewish Agency, and later of the Israelis, and his task was to find out how much water could be brought to Jewish territory to serve Jewish needs. Now, such a project cannot be carried out to the full and do justice to Arab needs.”

Elsewhere in his testimony before the Committee, Mr. Gardiner said the State Department felt Ambassador Johnston, in his water development negotiations, “was very close to agreement on the Arab side, but that the negotiations with Israel may prove to be more difficult.”

Mr. Gardiner told of the State Department’s “genuine concern” over the Arab refugee problem. He said, “I do not think that those who were interested in establishing Israel over the past 30 years, in Congress and elsewhere, can now wash their hands of this problem. This (Arab refugee problem) is one of the results of the establishment of Israel.”