Jewish Congress Criticizes State Department’s Middle East Policy

The American Jewish Congress today criticized as “shortsighted and counterproductive” present American policy in the Middle East, which, it charged, was based on the premise that “the United States must purchase Arab support, almost unconditionally, as the only means of immunising that area from Soviet influence. “

In a resolution adopted by its Governing Council, the AJCongress called for a change in the “compliant disposition” of the State Department to “the undisguised campaign of territorial and political aggrandizement by President Nasser’s United Arab Republic. “

“The UAR’s program of aggression and expansion has been encouraged by the silence and passivity especially of those governments, including our own, that have a clear national interest in preserving the peace of the region, ” the resolution said, adding: “If hostilities do break out, responsibility will rest with those who either foment or condone the kind of provocation that will make such hostilities inescapable.