The Democratic Platform Committee is scheduled to approve tomorrow a policy statement on the Middle East which calls for the strong support of Israel and the recognition by the United States of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State. The statement is part of the platform which will be submitted to the Democratic National Convention in New York in July.
The last paragraph of a statement on the Middle East drafted by the subcommittee on international relations, declares that “We recognize and support the established status of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel with free access to all its holy places provided to all faiths. As a symbol of this stand the U.S. Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.” The U.S. and most other countries have refused to move their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The long Middle East statement also says:
“We shall continue to seek a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. The cornerstone of our policy is a firm commitment to the independence and security of the State of Israel. This special relationship does not prejudice improved relations with other nations in the region. Real peace in the Middle East will permit Israel and her Arab neighbors to turn their energies to internal development and will eliminate the threat of world conflict spreading from tensions there.”
CITES JEWISH AS WELL AS ARAB REFUGEE PROBLEM
The draft statement also said that the fundamental U.S. principles in the Mideast must include “our consistent support of Israel, including sufficient military assistance to maintain Israel’s deterrent strength…and the maintenance of U.S. military forces in the Mediterranean adequate to deter intervention by the Soviet Union”; and opposition to an imposed solution from outside while promoting “direct face-to-face negotiations between the parties and normalization of relations and a full peace within secure and defensible borders.”
The statement said that a solution must be found to the problems of both Arab and Jewish refugees, but “such problems cannot be solved, however, by recognition of terrorist groups which refuse to acknowledge their adversary’s right to exist or groups which have no legitimate claim to represent the people for whom they purport to be speaking.” The draft statement also declared that “we support initiation of government enforcement action to insure that stated U.S. policy–and opposition to boycott against friendly countries–is fully and vigorously implemented.”
In a section on U.S.-Soviet relations, the draft statement urges support of Soviet Jewry although not by name. The clause says: “Our stance on the issue of human rights and political liberty in the Soviet Union is important to American self respect and our moral stand in the world. We should continually remind the Soviet Union, by word and conduct, of its commitment in Helsinki to the free flow of people and ideas and how offensive we and other free peoples find its violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As part of our program of official technical trade, cultural and other exchanges with the USSR we should press its leaders to open their society to a genuine interchange of people and ideas.”
In an amendment to the policy statement, the subcommittee declared that “We steadfastly oppose any move to isolate Israel in the international arena or suspend it from the United Nations or its constituent organization.”
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