Former Senator J. William Fulbright recommended to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today that the United Nations Security Council should guarantee Israel’s security. His view drew an immediate negative reaction from Sen, Robert P. Griffin of Michigan, the Republican assistant leader in the Senate, who characterized the recommendation as “not very reassuring to Israel.”
Fulbright, testifying in the second day of the extensive hearings the committee is holding in the Senate’s first assessment of the UN in 20 years, said that the UN should make a settlement of the Middle East issues. “As long as Israel was created by the Security Council,” he testified, “what would be more appropriate than for the Security Council to guarantee its security.”
During the course of the Fulbright testimony at the hearing co-chaired by John J. Sparkman (D. Ala.), and Charles Percy (D.Ill.), the four committee members present did not explore this aspect of his testimony. Griffin, a committee member, but who did not attend the hearing, was asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency what he thought of the Fulbright recommendation in a brief interview at the Capitol.
In his prepared statement, Fulbright suggested that the U.S. should make “the Security Council and other UN organs the central forum of our foreign relations, particularly on matters of pressing import like the Middle East.” He said he was “well aware of the low esteem in which the UN is held by Israel and perhaps others,” he said. “But a UN guarantee would also be a great power guarantee, more specifically a Soviet-American guarantee, and that, one hopes, would inspire some measure of confidence.”
URGES GENEVA TALKS UNDER UN AUSPICES
When Fulbright was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee that he headed for 16 years before his retirement in January following his defeat by former Governor Dale Bumpers in the Arkansas Democratic primary, Fulbright had long advocated a U.S. guarantee for Israel’s security after it had withdrawn to its 1948 borders.
In his testimony, Fulbright also said it is “most important to conduct the prospective Geneva conference under clearly delineated UN auspices but more important still, the UN can play a central role in the solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict–through the use of permanent international forces to patrol demilitarized zones, UN teams to inspect and oversee compliance by both sides with the terms of a settlement, and finally by providing appropriate guarantees of the overall settlement.”
Fulbright, who has been a consistent critic of Israeli foreign policy, suggested that the U.S. “make it national policy to refrain from using our veto in the Security Council. After he left the committee chamber, the JTA asked Fulbright whether the U.S. should not use its veto in the hypothetical event that the other four members of the Security Council–the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Union, England and France–should decide to banish Israel from UN membership. “In that case,” Fulbright replied, “I would use the veto.” He said he did not mean that the U.S. should never use the veto.
GOLDBERG: ISRAEL IN DANGER IN UN
Former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, who was a chief witness in the opening hearing yesterday, testified as a former permanent U.S. representative to the UN. He said a movement is now “underway to deny Israel its proper place in the General Assembly and in the specialized agencies.” He said this would be unconstitutional. Goldberg was referring also to the UNESCO’s refusal to grant Israel funds on her Jerusalem excavation project or join a regional UNESCO group.
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.
