Halpern Urges Immediate Sale of Planes to Israel and U.S. Withdrawal from Big Four Talks

Rep. Seymour Halpern, a New York Democrat, urged President Nixon today to approve the immediate sale of more Phantom and Skyhawk jets to Israel and to pull the United States out of the Four Power Mideast talks. The Congressman advocated the latter move “because of the obvious Franco-Soviet manipulation of such talks and open bias that makes the forum nothing but an anti-Israel kangaroo court.” In a letter to the President in which he accused the Russian and French governments of supporting “the vengeful Arab drive to liquidate Israel,” Mr. Halpern called on the U.S. government to proclaim that it will not tolerate the intervention of Soviet armed forces against Israel and to “re-affirm unequivocally the principle of a just settlement involving direct, face-to-face negotiations in which the Arabs acknowledge their responsibility to make and keep a real and lasting peace.” He also urged U.S. economic assistance “to enable Israel to pit its meagre finances against the combined economies of the Soviet Union, France and the Arab world.”