A column in the New York Times by editorial page editor Max Frankel that the Labor Party opposition wants the United States to reduce its aid to Israel as a means of pressuring the Begin government has triggered a political storm here.
The story broke in the media last night after a report on Frankel’s column was sent from New York by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The Labor Party flatly denied Frankel’s report but government figures lashed out at the opposition for lack of patriotism.
HIGHTLIGHTS OF TIMES COLUMN
Frankel, in a two-part series yesterday and Monday, wrote that “The government’s opponents, in sum, are frail and timid” and “thus reduced to begging America to break Mr. Begin’s political power. And it now advocates means that would have been unthinkable even a few weeks ago. The startling plea by many leading Israelis (is) that the United States reduce its economic aid to their nation.”
Frankel stated that Begin’s opponents “acknowledge political weakness, which is mainly due to Mr. Begin’s success in rallying the large, resentful community of Middle Eastern Jews against the affluent or socialistic elites of European origin.” The opposition, therefore, according to Frankel, wants the U.S. to help them topple the Begin government.
“And to that end, leading opposition figures now risk political oblivion by counselling sharp cuts in America’s non-military aid of $800 million a year,” Frankel wrote. He concluded by noting: “American diplomats in Israel resist this anguished counsel … But that so many prominent Israelis should be inviting bankruptcy to rescue their diplomacy is startling evidence of the fierce passions that now dominate politics in Israel.”
Frankel himself, in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post yesterday, refused to identify his sources. But the Post correspondent wrote that Frankel “indicated strongly that they were top leaders — not secondary party functionaries.”
SHAMIR BLASTS THE OPPOSITION
Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, addressing a national convention of the ultra-rightist Tehiya Party in Jerusalem last evening, said: “Some of our critics at home even want to invoke overseas pressures to be brought to bear on the government … but never fear. They will not succeed. The government of Israel will never surrender to pressure.”
Shamir called on Tehiya to give its “verve, enthusiasm and zeal” to supporting “the government of Israel … our government … it is an Eretz Israel government.” He said the government was under attack at home and abroad for “strengthening Jewish settlements in each and every part of Eretz Israel.”
Labor’s official spokesman accused Shamir of inciting against the opposition. Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres asserted this morning that no Laborite and made the comment to Frankel. Secretary-General Haim Barlev assured a radio interviewer that “no one in our party would have said anything so stupid or so vicious.” Barlev said he himself had not met with Frankel. He raised the possibility that Frankel’s report might be “a provocation” but refused to specify who might have been responsible for such a provocation.
JUSTICE MINISTER SAYS REPORT IS ‘CREDIBLE’
But Justice Minister Moshe Nissim (Likud-Liberal) told reporters today that Frankel was “credible” and had plainly written what he did because he had been satisfied it reflected “a trend” within Labor.
Nissim noted that Frankel had told the Post that he “would not have written this article unless I was convinced that the view was widespread and that it was deeply felt … It was not just one crackpot. I was startled to find how widespread the view was.” Plainly, Nissim said, Frankel had met with several leading Laborites and the view he reported was a trend in their thinking.
This was “an unprecedented scandal,” the Justice Minister continued. “See to what terrible lengths they are prepared to go just to try and get back into power …”
CUT IN AID TERMED A DISASTER
Meanwhile, a group of Jewish U.S. state legislators, members of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, currently visiting Jerusalem as guests of the Knesset and the World Zionist Organization, told the JTA today that if Congress decided to cut aid it “would be disastrous” for Israel. Several of the legislators pointed out that it would be virtually impossible to restore the aid once Congress cut it. The lawmakers said that in their meetings with Labor Party figures they had not heard the kind of sentiment as that reported by Frankel.
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.
