Some 10,000 officers and men of the U.S. Sixth Fleet will spend a week to 10 days in Israel next month when the giant air-craft carrier-John F. Kennedy and a flotilla of escorts calls at Haifa on a good-will visit. The visit is being described as the biggest to date by the U.S. Navy to Israel and is seen here as having political and military implications.
While the American Embassy declined to comment, it was learned that the visit may be connected with Carter Administration plans to bring Israel more closely into the strategic picture in the eastern Mediterranean. Critics of Carter have suggested that the U.S. was putting too much stress on its new military relations with Egypt and leaving Israel on the sidelines. The call by the huge carrier, scheduled for mid-October, may help dispel that view.
The 80,000 ton JFK will be accompanied by three other combat vessels and a Navy supply ship. The latter will load fresh produce while at Haifa. The Sixth Fleet has been purchasing supplies in Israel for the past year.
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.
