Allan Gerson, the special assistant to the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeone Kirkpatrick, said today that “what goes on in the United Nations is a continuation of war by other means and in that war, Israel is not faring very well and the PLO is doing extremely well.”
Gerson, who was addressing the Zionist Organization of America’s national executive committee, said the U.S. delegation to the UN has tried to answer effectively every attempt to denigrate Israel. “This delegation agrees with the former head of the U.S. delegation, Senator Daniel Moynihan, that the UN is a very dangerous place,” he said.
Gerson described the UN as an arena where attempts are mode by Israel’s enemies to “isolate and denigrate” Israel and its policies and to “isolate those countries friendly to Israel, namely the U.S.”
NOVICK WARNS OF DANGER FACING ISRAEL
Ivan Novic, ZOA president, told the national executive committee meeting that the Reagan Administration’s “efforts to accommodate the Arab states is not only false optimism but has proven historically not to work fact is counter-productive to American interests.”
Novick made it clear, however, that he was not saying the Administration “wishes Israel harm. Nevertheless, good intentions of the Administration if improperly directed can not only be hormful but they con be fatal.”
The ZOA leqder also said that Pentogon “complacency” about the growing military strength of Iraq, Jordon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organization confronts Israel with the danger of “devastating losses” in any new war with the Arab world.
“The Defense Department insists that Israel is stronger than all of the countries that surround it and could win any war against any combination of Arab states,” Novick said. “The Pentagon appears not to understand that the Arabs ever increasing quantitative arms superiority over Israel, which has gone from 3-1 to 4-1 and perhaps even 5-1, could inflict huge losses on Israeli.”
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.
