Israelis Pleased by Nixon Election, Adopt ‘wait and See’ Attitude, Aj Committee Finds

Israelis are generally pleased by the election of Richard M. Nixon as President and believe his “traditional” anti-Communism will bolster their security against Soviet expansionist aims in the Middle East. But most Jews in other countries have adopted a “wait and see” attitude toward the President-elect. These findings were the result of a survey of Jewish opinion overseas recently completed by the American Jewish Committee and released here today.

According to the survey, analysts in Israel see the Mediterranean area as having been converted into “a genuine and legitimate area of cold war concern” but believe “that the USSR will be disincline to test Mr. Nixon in the Middle East as Khruschev once did with Kennedy in Cuba.” Flowing from this widely held premise, the report said, “is Israel’s acceptance of Mr. Nixon as being a logical and forceful individual who will not hesitate to stand up to the Soviet Union and thereby insure Israel’s survival.”

Much is made in Israel of Mr. Nixon’s campaign statement that the balance of military power in the Middle East should be tipped in Israel’s favor as a deterrent to Arab aggression. The Israelis are also pleased by Mr. Nixon’s “lukewarm” attitude toward the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which Prime Minister Levi Eshkol has said Israel should not “rush” into signing, the AJ Committee report noted. The Israelis fear the treaty would require them to dismantle their experimental reactors and pilot plants under Soviet-Arab supervision while the Arabs would have nothing to dismantle or submit to inspection, it said.

In Europe, the report indicated, the main Jewish reaction was “wait and see” but some believe that “because of Mr. Nixon’s more pronounced anti-Communist line, he might be more active in seeking to check Soviet expansionist efforts in Eastern Europe and elsewhere and this may also have direct bearing on-Soviet use of anti-Semitism as a weapon of its foreign policy.” According to the survey, Jews in Latin America appeared less concerned over what Mr. Nixon might do than with the fact that 13 percent of American voters cast ballots for George Wallace which they regard as “a dangerous symptom of certain political trends….and a menace for democracy.”