Premier Yitzhak Rabin said today at the weekly Cabinet session that the economic aid bill presented by the Administration to the Congress “was not according to the agreement between Israel and the United States during the interim agreement talks.”
Rabin charged that the U.S. failed to meet their promises in two aspects: the Administration suggested an economic and military aid package of $2.240 billion–short by $60 million of the $2.3 billion that had been agreed to during Israel’s talks last August with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger when he was in Israel to help achieve the second Sinai accord. Last Thursday, President Ford asked Congress to appropriate for Israel $740 million in “security supporting assistance” and $1.5 billion in military credits for the U.S. fiscal year ending next June 30.
Secondly, Israel understood that two-thirds of the American assistance would be given as a grant, and only one-third in loans. But reportedly most of the assistance ($1.24 billion) will be given as a loan–which will worsen even more the national debt of the country.
Rabin said Israel’s displeasure at the changes made by the Administration was conveyed by Ambassador Simcha Dinitz at his meeting with Kissinger this weekend.
Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, reviewing the visit of President Anwar Sadat to the U.S. said that although Sadat apparently failed to create a positive image in the U.S. he would probably receive an affirmative answer to several of his requests. Allon noted, however, that American assistance to Egypt would not necessarily be at Israel’s account.
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.
