A bipartisan group of five Senators met today with President Carter prior to his press conference and said they received assurances that he will support legislation reaffirming U.S. commitment to Israel’s military security.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Sparkman (D.Ala.) and Jacob Javits (R.NY), two of the Senators, both said in interviews at the White House following the meeting that Carter will fulfill the “traditional” American policy that has prevailed towards Israel for almost 30 years.
Sens. Hubert Humphrey (D.Minn.), Frank Church (D. Idaho), Richard Stone (D. Fla.), Sparkman and Javits visited the President to discuss the concern that has arisen among friends of Israel over the Administration’s failure to include Israel on a top priority list of countries receiving U.S. arms and the absence of movement towards co-production between the U.S. and Israel of certain military articles. The Foreign Relations Committee was due to consider this afternoon an amendment to foreign aid legislation which would expand the transfer of American arms technology to Israel.
The President’s assurances indicated certain passage. It also indicated that the Senate is alert to any possible watering down of Administration elements toward Israel’s security.
CITES NATURE OF LEGISLATION
Javits said he presented Carter with an amendment to the legislation on international security and arms export control which “reaffirms the commitment to Israel’s security in terms of an adequate military supply which was undertaken in the second Sinai agreement.” Under that Israeli-Egyptian agreement in 1975, the U.S. pledged to maintain Israel’s security. Sparkman said the amendment “brought up to date language which has been our historic policy since 1948.”
On the co-production and preferred arms situations, Javits told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “I believe the President will carry out both the letter and the spirit of the policy of the United States now almost 30 years old. Without going into the specifics of co-production or a particular weapons system, I am confident the President has every desire and will to carry out the letter and spirit of that policy.”
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.
