Jewish Leaders Assail Plan to Suspend Plane Deliveries

Leaders of major Jewish organizations, who yesterday assailed critics of Israel’s Sunday air blow at Iraq’s nuclear plant, responded with equal sharpness today to the disclosure that President Reagan, responding to the raid, suspended delivery to Israel of four F-16s, due to have been delivered tomorrow.

Howard Squadron, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said the member organizations were “offended and upset” by the Reagan Administration’s “punishment” of Israel, adding that the Presidents Conference hoped the Reagan Administration would “reject” any moves at the United Nations to impose sanctions or other reprisals against Israel.

Frieda Lewis, president of Hadassah, said Israel was faced “by an irrational enemy whose avowed aim is the destruction of its people,” and that Israel “decisively eliminated” the threat of an Iraqi atomic attack. She expressed the hope that President Reagan would lift the suspension of the four fighter planes promptly.

Bertram H. Gold, executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, criticized the Reagan Administration for suspending the plane shipment before the scheduled review had been carried out as to whether Israel had violated its arms accord with the United States.

Rabbi Joseph Sternstein, president of the American Zionist Federation, said Israel “deserves praise, not punishment” adding that the Zionist Federation hoped for the “quick reversal” of the suspension so that the four planes could be delivered.

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the (Reform) Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said President Reagan “should have criticized those countries which provide nuclear materials and know-how for Iraq’s nuclear reactor,” but, instead, “he condemns the intended victim of the nuclear attack.”

The suspension of the deliveries of the planes came under sharp criticism from Julius Berman, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and Fred Ehrman, the Orthodox Union Israel Commission chairman. They asserted that, “in the light of the fact that Israel’s action was a strictly pre-emptive, defense maneuver, the suspension is an unwarranted punishment.”

Rabbi William Berkowitz, president of the Jewish National Fund, called the suspension “regrettable and disappointing” and urged the Reagan Administration to focus on the “grave issue of nuclear proliferation and atomic terrorism.”