Israel Ambassador Avraham Harman was among foreign diplomats summoned to the State Department last night by Secretary of State Dean Rusk for an emergency briefing on United States moves in connection with the Cuban blockade crisis.
Mr. Harman, it is believed, has conveyed to the Israel Government his evaluation of developments, at least partially based on the extraordinary briefing.
Israelis are intently observing Cuban developments, aware of the parallel situation existing in the Middle East, where the Soviet Union is providing a massive, offensive arms build-up to a number of Arab states hostile to Israel. The flow of Soviet missiles and jet bombers to the Arabs motivated the United States Government’s recent decision to provide Israel with defensive Hawk anti-aircraft missiles.
ISRAEL MOST REGULARLY SUPPORTS UNITED STATES POSITION IN U.N.
An evaluation of the United Nations voting records of members not formerly aligned with either world bloc, published here today as the U.S.A. is rallying its friends for U. N. action on the Cuban blockade crisis, revealed Israel’s record was the most pro-American, while the Arab states sided overwhelmingly with the Soviet Union.
Israel’s votes coincided with the U.S. stand 48 times, and only four times with the Russian vote. The Israeli record, from a viewpoint of most frequent similarity with the American position, surpassed even such nations as Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Austria and Cyprus. Votes by the Arab League states compared with those of leftist Indonesia in frequency of support of the Soviet side. Iraq’s votes coincided with Russia’s 43 times, but only twice with the American stand.
These statistics were viewed with special interest here in view of the UN General Assembly votes required to back the American move at the United Nations, calling for the dismantling and withdrawal of all offensive weapons from Cuba under supervision of UN observers, before the quarantine can be lifted.
The study was compiled by Francis O. Wilcox, who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizational Affairs from 1956 to 1961. He was also in the American UN delegation. Mr. Wilcox analyzed the voting pattern of non-aligned nations on 80 important roll call votes in the 15th and 16th General Assembly sessions, including plenary and committee meetings. The conclusions were published in a foreign policy report issued by the Foreign Policy Association.
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.
