Socialist Party Scores U.S. Mideast Policy; Urges U.S. to Continue Commitment to Israel

In a statement sharply critical of the Nixon Administration’s new policy in the Middle East, the Socialist Party, U.S.A. said that the weakening of the U.S. commitment to Israel’s defense “has bolstered the Arab belief that they have everything to gain by refusing to make peace.” “The danger of another outbreak of war in the area has been increased,” declared Michael Harrington, Chairman of the Socialist Party and author of The Other America, “by the change in the United States’ position which would provide for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories without any enforceable guarantees for Israeli security.”

The Socialist Party warned that Secretary of State Rogers’ newly announced policy of “impartiality” was unbalancing power relationships in the Middle East, strengthening the Soviet hand in the area and encouraging Arab recklessness and intransigence. Despite the Nixon Administration’s slight revisions of its policies recently, due to considerable counter-pressure, the ambiguity of its arms commitment to Israel in the face of heavy Russian support of the Arabs contributes to continued insecurity in the Middle East. The statement urged that “strict international limitations of arms shipments into the area should be imposed, but until such agreement is reached, we believe that the sale or supply of arms to these states be only such as to obtain and maintain a qualitative and quantitative arms balance.” The statement went on to say that the U.S. government should “do all in its power to encourage direct negotiations between Israel and the Arab states and must refrain from participating in any attempt to impose a settlement.”