Presidents Conference to Support Policies of Israeli Government

A delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations will meet with top Administration officials in Washington Tuesday to discuss the “escalation” of United States policy toward Israel, the situation in the Middle East and other topics.

Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, chairman of the Presidents Conference, who will lead the delegation, announced the meeting at a press conference Friday after the Presidents Conference decided at a special meeting to stand united and “support the policies of the democratically-elected government of Israel.”

Schindler, who has just returned from Israel, said that “The sense of unity and identification that binds American Jews to the people of Israel was expressed at our meeting by speaker after speaker, representing the broadest spectrum of American Jewish life. There was broad recognition that the indissoluble links between our two communities are independent of the political party or the political leader that forms the government of Israel.”

Schindler said that the Presidents Conference also decided “to make it absolutely certain” that there will be no erosion in American-Israeli relations. Schindler said, however, that he felt “some concern” over what appeared to be an “escalation” in American policy “from one the began with a call for honest negotiations between the parties in the Mideast, leading to a full-fledged peace and that seems recently to have developed into a specific set of guidelines that include specific concessions by Israel.” He emphasized that in his view “we are not entering a period of confrontation between the United States and Israel.”

URGES BROAD COALITION

Reporting on his recent visit to Israel where he met with Menachem Begin, the Likud leader who is expected to be Israel’s next Premier, and leaders of other parties, Schindler said that his message to them was that Israel should form a government as soon as possible and that the new government should be as broad as possible. “A narrow coalition government,” Schindler said, “will not be sufficiently broad to unite American Jewry behind it.”

On his meetings and impression of Begin, Schindler said” “He is a man of peace, a man of integrity, a man of profound devotion to the Jewish people and their security. To call him an ‘extremist’ and PLO terrorist chief (Yasser) Arafat and Syrian President (Hafez) Assad ‘moderates’–as American news media have done within the past two weeks–is a slander of an honorable and distinguished personality, a profound disservice to the truth and a grave danger to the cause of peace.”

Schindler added that Begin made it clear to him that he will continue to follow a policy that seeks peace with the Arabs. “He is confident that he will be able to persuade President Carter of the fundamental principles on which a peace must be based,” Schindler said.

Schindler said he was disturbed by speculation in the press that American Jews were “divided” over whether to support the new government and that efforts might be made to drive a wedge between American Jews and Israel as part of an effort to pressure the government of Israel into accepting an American-imposed peace plan.

Schindler said it was his view that the present period–between the formal resignation of the Rabin government and the formation of a new government by Begin–was “a time when it was particularly important to make clear to American friends of Israel in the Administration, in Congress, in the labor movement, among black and Christian leaders, academicians and other groups–the enduring policy of all Israeli governments: a policy that seeks peace with justice for all the peoples of the Middle East.”