The third ranking Republican in the House of Representatives called on Congress last night to “keep the pressure on” the Soviet Union by withholding passage of the U.S.USSR trade treaty until Moscow repeals the “diploma tax” on Jews seeking to emigrate. Rep. John B. Anderson of Illinois, chairman of the House Republican Conference, told a Zionist Organization of America dinner here that “we must make certain, as certain as we can ” that the Soviets repeal the tax and “that they do not try to reinstitute it later.”
The seven-term Congressman, who addressed the annual dinner of the ZOA’s Southeast Region, also urged that the U.S. press for a trans-Canadian oil pipeline to the Midwest as a step to help forestall the Arab states using their oil resources for “political blackmail” on American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Anderson said that some experts have predicted that the United States might come to depend on the Middle East for 80 percent of its oil by 1980. “If that should occur,” he said, “it is not hard to imagine the implications and pressures that will hamper strong diplomacy in behalf of Israel. It is also not difficult to imagine the independent, intransigent attitude that would likely develop among the Arab nations.”
Noting that the Arab states control 60 percent of all known oil resources, Anderson said that this, “coupled with their ideological fervor and nationalistic pride,” makes obvious “the potential for political blackmail.” He said the proposed trans-Canadian pipeline “would relieve our reliance on Middle East oil and would relieve the potential pressure on our foreign actions” in support of Israel.
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.
