Two leaders in the anti-nuclear energy coalition, Jane Fonda and her husband Tom Hayden, said here last night that there is a tilt of American foreign policy to Arab causes through the pressure of the major oil companies and their friends who depend on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for nine million barrels of oil a day.
Hayden, who focussed on this facet of U.S. policy, stressed that there is “no way the energy is sue can be disconnected from the crisis in the Middle East and no way the crisis in the Middle East can be disconnected from the energy crisis.”
Hayden and Fonda addressed more than 900 people at Temple Shaaray Tefila on “Key Economic and Energy Issues of the 1980s” at a meeting sponsored by the citywide Brandeis-Kallen Chapter of the American Jewish Congress. Both Fonda and Hayden, whose remarks were greeted by frequent applause, have been touring the country to speak out against the use of nuclear energy and to campaign for phasing out nuclear plants, ending American dependence on oil and calling for a crash program to develop solar energy.
Hayden, who heads the Campaign for Economic Democracy, asserted that there is a “coalition between big oil and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The same establishment that opposes radical change suddenly finds itself in secret but real alliance with (PLO chief Yasir) Arafat. There’s an invisible but far-reaching lobby for the interests of Arab states and the Arab rich” in this country.
CITE PLO AS A DANGER
Both Fonda and Hayden assailed the PLO as a danger to Israel’s security. Fonda pointed out that “the Covenant of the PLO still is relying on the destruction of Israel and I, with all my heart and all I believe, want Israel to be able to live in peace and security and I will stand for this as long as I live.
Hayden, in what many in the audience felt was a reference to the Black leaders who have been meeting with PLO representatives in this country and the Mideast, said “some people think that talking to the PLO will solve the problem” of the Mideast conflict He said he hoped that if these people insist on talking to the PLO they will convey the view that Israel has a right to exist and “will not promote the idea that the PLO can change American public opinion by playing one ethnic group against another.”
Hayden, who visited Israel earlier this year to discuss implementing a joint solar energy program with California, said the only way to resolve the Mideast crisis is to change the energy policy of the U.S. “so it will be good for American working people and consumers and also take the pressure off Israel. It would lead to a new situation in which (the fate) of Israel is not sacrificed on the altar of the large oil companies.”
SAYS ISRAEL IS NO BURDEN ON U.S.
Calling for an alignment between American workers and Israel, Hayden declared: “Some would like us to believe that Israel is a burden. (to the U.S.) and try to convince the American working people of that but American working people have a common interest with Israel in keeping world politics from being dominated by the oil companies.” He described Israel as a “thriving scene of democracy on the street level,” in the form of “very animated” discussions and disputations.
On other topics, Fonda said she disagreed on every issue” with Vanessa Redgrave who has been campaigning on behalf of the PLO. I am saddened that I have been linked with her politically,” Fonda said. She praised American Jews for their leadership in progressive movements during the McCarthy period. She said that the” Jewish people have a historic role” in the struggle against all forms of oppression. She also stated that the American left “has a stake in a settlement which protects the right of Israel to exist.”
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.
