Reduction of the Soviet military presence in Egypt has been described to the Young Republican National Federation by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as having “vindicated” President Nixon’s maintenance of Israel’s “deterrent strength.”
I. L. Kenen, AIPAC’s executive vice chairman, in a prepared statement that he provided in testifying before the Federation’s platform committee at the Washington Hilton Hotel, said that the purpose of Nixon’s policy “has been to deter Russians and Egyptians from opening a new military offensive.”
“The present developments in Cairo,” the AIPAC statement said, “indicate that the Russians have realized that the Egyptians are not in a position to win a new war and that they may not be ready to make additional large-scale investments in the Egyptian military machine.”
The AIPAC statement claimed, however, that continued American military and diplomatic support for Israel “are still essential” to “persuade the Egyptians that they cannot mount a new war nor win a diplomatic offensive to force Israel’s surrender to their territorial demands. They should come to recognize that the only rational course is a peace negotiated by the parties themselves.”
The United States should continue, the statement added, to provide Israel with the military equipment, necessary financial credits, economic supporting assistance and diplomatic backing to forward this policy.
The statement pointed out that AIPAC is a nonpartisan organization that does not make endorsements or participate in the political campaigns “but since 1944, we and our predecessor organization have always presented our views to the administration, to Congress and to the national political conventions.”
“Our proposals,” the statement said, “have the endorsement of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which comprise 26 national Jewish organizations. The American Jewish Committee also concurs in our recommendations,” the AIPAC statement said.
In its presentation to the Young Republicans, AIPAC proposed the following “key points” for inclusion in the 1972 Republican platform, which are similar to the ones adopted by the Democratic Party Convention in Miami Beach, namely to: “1) Promote direct Arab-Israel negotiations to achieve a final peace based on agreed and defensible frontiers; 2) Maintain Israel’s deterrent strength by providing her with planes, sophisticated equipment and economic supporting assistance; 3) Maintain US strength in Europe and the Mediterranean area to preserve the balance of strength and prevent an eruption of hostilities; 4) Recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US Embassy there; 5) Assist Israel and the Arab states to rehabilitate and resettle refugees.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
