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Azf Leader Urges Nixon to Give Israel Political Balance of Power in UN

September 17, 1971
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Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation, called today on President Nixon to stand firm in his commitments for a truly negotiated peace in the Middle East by giving Israel a “political balance of power” through America’s actions in the United Nations. Rabbi Miller issued this appeal as the UN General Assembly is scheduled to begin its fall session Tuesday. The AZF leader urged that American action in the UN should be to resist “all attempts to impose any terms for a settlement.”

Israel faces a threat of major proportion in the Assembly session, Rabbi Miller warned. “The major thrust of the drive will be to isolate Israel even from the backing of the United States,” he said. A well planned propaganda barrage “will be levelled to obscure the balance achieved” in the Security Council Resolution 242 and “to accuse Israel of a refusal to implement the Resolution and thus achieve peace.”

Rabbi Miller noted that this tactic “must be exposed even before it gets under way, for it threatens not merely Israel and the peace of the Middle East, but the position of the United States in that strategic area.” He observed that Nixon’s pledge to maintain the balance of power on a military level must be extended to the “global diplomatic struggle” which Israel now faces. “Only in such fashion will the United States convince Arab leaders and their Soviet backers that we seek a just and durable peace in the Middle East.”

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