Fulbright’s Defeat, Israel’s Gain

The defeat of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright by the state’s Governor Dale Bumpers was seen here today as indirectly Indicating gains for Israel in the Senate. Fulbright, head of the powerful and prestigious Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 15 of his 30 years in Congress, was outspokenly critical of many U.S. foreign policy stands including aid to Israel.

The U.S. position toward Israel was not a factor in the primary campaign, in which victory is tantamount to election in November, but Bumpers and Fulbright were in almost direct opposition in their views toward Israel. Fulbright’s antipathy towards U.S. aid to Israel has been long established, though he seemed to indicate a sudden, if almost imperceptible, change of heart in the final stages of his fight for reflection. Bumpers, however, indicated backing for a strong and secure Israel as a means of assuring against U.S. military participation in the Middle East “after we just got out of that entanglement in Vietnam.”

Bumpers took that stand in a debate with Fulbright on ABC’s “Issues and Answers” on May 26, the only face-to-face meeting between the two Bumpers said he felt it would be “much better” to send them arms to Israel than it would be “to send them men.” Asked by correspondent Frank Reynolds if there was any issue of sending American troops to Israel, Bumpers said “no.”

However, he added that Israeli withdrawal from all occupied areas, with a United Nations guarantee, “which would really be a United States guarantee of sorts,” would have left Israel defenseless and would have “required” the U.S. to go to Israel’s defense with men and arms “sometime” in the future.

Fulbright’s defeat almost certainly means a new chairman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the new Congress convening in Jan. On the likely assumption that the Democrats will continue to control the Senate, either Sen. John Sparkman of Alabama or Sen. Frank Church of Idaho will replace Fulbright as chairman, although Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield is next in line to Sparkman as Foreign Relations Committee chairman if he wants that position. Mansfield, however, may be reluctant to give up his present position.

SPARKMAN, CHURCH SYMPATHETIC TO ISREAL

Sparkman, now chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee, was believed today ready to quit that post to head the Foreign Relations Committee, a position which is his for the asking on the basis of seniority. Sparkman has been consistently sympathetic to Israel since its rebirth in 1948. As a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations he evinced sympathy for the young Jewish State and two years later, he was one of 36 Senators to co-sponsor aid to Israel.

Church, a recent visitor to Israel, has been emphatically pro-Israel as Senator. Both Sparkman and Church voted for the Administration’s emergency $2.2 billion aid program for Israel after the Yom Kippur War and both sponsored the Jackson Amendment which links trade concessions to Russia with amelioration of its emigration policies for Soviet Jews.

In a notable turnabout two weeks ago. Fulbright became one of the 43 Senatorial sponsors of a testimonial for Sen. Henry M. Jackson here on May 14. Since the function was sponsored by the American Trade Union and Public Service Councils of Histadrut, Fulbright’s support was seen as hinting a softening of his stand against Israel, organized labor and Jackson.

In Sept. 1970, when the first Jackson Amendment calling for a U.S. credit of $500 million to Israel was being debated, Fulbright was asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about his opposition to such a credit. He replied angrily that the overwhelming support here for the amendment demonstrated “the power of Zionism” in the Congress, In May of 1973, he charged that the United States would lose its oil sources in the Middle East because of what he called U.S. “subservience” to Israel.