Javits Hits at West’s Apathy in Face of Soviet Challenge in Mediterranean

Senator Jacob K. Javits, New York. Rep., warned here that the Middle East is potentially the most explosive tinderbox in the world today and decried the “apathy” within the North Atlantic Alliance that has permitted the Soviet Union to challenge vital Western interests in the Mediterranean. Senator Javits spoke at the Organization for the United Nations. He referred to the growing Soviet naval force in the Mediterranean and to last June’s Arab-Israel war which, he said, demonstrated “the Soviet’s ability to capitalize even on the defeat of its clients. Senator Javits said that the Russians have re-armed the Arabs with modern, sophisticated weapons and supported Arab intransigence on peace talks even though they know that a renewal of the war in the Middle East could embroil the Soviet Union and the U.S. and “drag the world to the brink of nuclear disaster.”