Mcgovern Says Use of Greece As ‘home Port’ for Us Ships Imperils Backing for Israel

Sen. George McGovern charged today that a Nixon Administration plan to use Greece as the home port for destroyers of the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean was “jeopardizing our commitment to Israel,” The South Dakotas who is the Democratic Presidential nominee, warned in a statement issued here that the Greek military regime’s friendship with Arab nations might cause it to interfere with any attempt to use the ships to support Israel in a time of need.

“Just three weeks ago the Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece told newsmen ‘Greece’s friendly relations with the Arab world rule out any direct or indirect participation in any acts aimed at our Arab friends;” McGovern said. The Senator referred to the comment of the Greek Deputy Foreign Minister, Christian Xanthopolous-Palamas after President Nixon remarked at a press conference last month that continued US aid to Greece and Turkey was especially important now “because of the fact that without aid to Greece and aid to Turkey you have no viable policy to save Israel.”

McGovern asked, “What must the brave people of Israel think when they know our strength in the Mediterranean is dependent on the ports of a nation which is in league with the Arab countries?” He urged that the port arrangements be submitted to the Senate for approval because Congress had “many times expressed views on both Greece and Israel which vary sharply from those of the Administration – by urging a reluctant Administration to speed up authorized sales of aircraft to Israel and by recommending that aid to the Greek dictatorship be terminated.”

(Sen. Frank Church, the Idaho Democrat who is a close adviser to Presidential candidate George McGovern, told Premier Golda Meir yesterday in Jerusalem that it was not true that the Democratic candidate did not fully support Israel. That theme was stressed repeatedly by Sen. Church at his meeting with Mrs. Meir at her home here. Mrs. Meir reminded Sen. Church that she had said in a Knesset speech on July 26, in a foreign policy address, that support for Israel transcended political party lines in the United States.

(Apart from bringing up the McGovern issue, Sen. Church spent most of his 90-minute meeting with Mrs. Meir listening to her views on Mideast political and military affairs following the Soviet military personnel withdrawal from Egypt. The Senator, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was in Israel on a five-day fact finding visit, asked to-the-point questions and listened attentively to Mrs. Meir’s detailed and lengthy replies. A participant said the subject of Soviet Jewry was touched on.)