Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor in the Carter Administration, said yesterday that the American Jewish community was exercising “a legitimate and traditional” right when it put pressure on the Administration in foreign policy matters. Brzezinski spoke in reply to questions on the CBS-TV “Face the Nation” program.
He was asked if the “American Jewish lobby” throws U.S. foreign policy “out of killer” and if it was “really a problem.” He replied: “This is a legitimate and traditional part of American society … There are other groups that are also well organized, well educated and wealthy. This is something which need not be swept under the rug as if it didn’t exist … We have to accept it as part of the traditional American political reality.”
Referring to the Middle East, Brzezinski stressed that the Camp David process still offers a “tested way” to peace. Asked if he thought Israel would annex the West Bank as it did the Golan Heights, he said: “I think there is a risk that unless the U.S. makes its commitment to the Camp David process unambiguously clear, there may be some elements in Israel — I hope very much a minority — that might be tempted to annex the West Bank and Gaza.”
He added that the U.S. must “provide the kind of mediation that is necessary and without which the Arabs and Israelis on their own can never resolve their differences.”
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.
