Republican Leader Attacks Carter Policy As Weakening Israel’s Support

William Brock of Tennessee, National Chairman of the Republican Party, sharply attacked the Carter Administration’s Middle East policies which, be claimed, tended to weaken support for Israel and to make “Arab leaders totally intransigent against negotiations with Israel for a fair and just peace.” Brock made his remarks at a reception given for him in New York last week at the Manhattan apartment of George Klein, a New York industrialist who was, with Detroit industrialist Max Fisher, a coordinator of the Ford election campaign last fall.

Brock, a former U.S. Senator, was in New York for dinner with ex-President Ford and former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller. He met for about two hours at Klein’s apartment with about 75 Jewish community leaders at what was described as a get-acquainted gathering. The guests included New York State Republican Chairman Richard Rosenbaum.

Brock declared that “the American Jewish community must remain united and not permit itself to be splintered in its full support of Israel.” He said he was surprised by the U.S. government’s reaction to the results of Israel’s national elections last month and indicated that if he were an Israeli he might have voted for Menachem Begin’s Likud Party slate in view of President Carter’s Middle East policy. He invited the guests at the reception to call on him and the Republicans in Congress to support measures in Israel’s defense.

Another Republican, Sen. Robert Packwood of Oregon, said in a speech on the Senate floor last week that “suggestions” that Begin’s election “may ‘stall’ the peace process (in the Middle East) are made with ignorance or malice.” He contended that Begin’s leadership “does not significantly change the chances for an Arab-Israeli peace” and Begin’s policy on the future of the West Bank “has been shown to be flexible.”