Israel’s permanent control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was urged by conservative Congressmen of the Republican and Democratic parties at the 1986 National Conference of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) here. They stressed U. S. support for Israel and “peace through strength” in the Middle East.
Legislators who addressed the gathering included Sen. Steve Symms (R. Idaho); Sen. Jesse Helms (R.N.C.); Rep. Tommy Robinson (D. Ark.); and Sen. Chic Hecht (R. Nev.). They also plugged for support of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and his request for $100 million in aid for the Contras seeking to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.
Symms told the convention, “I oppose any plan, whether proposed by Syria, Jordan, the UN or the State Department that seeks to remove the territories of Judaea and Samaria from Israel’s control.” The U. S., he said “must help Israel stand firm against pressure to surrender her security by ceding strategic territories to Arab states.”
Symms warned that Syria, with its arsenal of Soviet-supplied weapons, could easily cut Israel in two if it returned to its pre-1967 borders. He also called for support of a strong American defense which he said is needed not only to defend the U. S. but Israel as well.
PRAISES ISRAELI SETTLERS
Helms hailed Israel as America’s only reliable friend in the Middle East and urged every member of the Senate and House to visit Israel so they could “understand the importance of Judaea and Samaria to Israel from a geo-strategic and Biblical point of view.”
He praised Israeli settlers who are “revitalizing and rejuvenating Judaea and Samaria.” He said the eight days he spent in Israel last summer were among “the most meaningful” he could remember.
Robinson, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, declared that for strategic reasons “Israel ought to recapture some of the territory it gave up.” He did not specify which territory. Robinson stressed the strategic importance of Israel to the U. S. He said it was “absolutely ridiculous” that the State Department wants Israel to “give up territory needed to protect the integrity and security of the State of Israel.”
The Arkansas lawmaker attacked U. S. Middle East policy, which he called “schizophrenic,” and suggested that the State Department be re-named the “capitulation department.” He said he would vote against the $300 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia proposed by the Reagan Administration, and urged moving the U. S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Another speaker, Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham, chairman of the Coalition for the Strategic Defense Initiative, said that Israel is faced with a ballistic missile threat from the Soviet Union, including germ and chemical weapons, and is “aware that it needs SDI.” He said that awareness led Israel to joint the U. S. in the project. According to Graham, With SDI, the USSR would lose its status of superpower.”
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.
