Jerusalem and Miami Reports and a survey
Note Richard Nixon's Pro-Israel Attitude
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Political
observers here welcomed the nomi-
nation of Richard M. Nixon as the
Republican Presidential candidate.
The first reaction to the news from
Miami Beach was to stress Nixon's
"positive attitude" toward Israel
as exemplified by several state.
ments he made during his pre-
nomination campaign. However,
commentators here said that there
was little likelihood of any change
in American policy toward Israel
no matter who is elected to the
White House.
It was noted that Nixon has ad-
vocated U.S. arms shipments to
Israel to maintain the balance of
military power in the Middle East.
Some observers said that as Vice
President during the Eisenhower
Administration, Nixon shOwed an
understanding of Israel's problems.
In Miami Beach, JTA Washing-
ton correspondent Milton Fried-
man writes Richard M. Nixon
stands committed to a policy of
friendship with Israel. Nixon was
the first important United States
political personality to visit Israel
after the Six-Day War. He come
mended Israeli leaders on Israel's
triumph and brought words of
cheer to wounded Israeli soldiers
in military hospitals. The former
Vice-President met with Israel's
current Ambassador to the U.S.
Gen Yitzhak Rabin, then Chief
of Staff, and other high. officials
at that time.
Gov. Spiro T. Agnew, of Mary-
land, Richard M. Nixon's Vice
Presidential choice, drew most
of his electoral support from
Baltimore Jews and other minor-
ity groups when he ran for Gov-
ernor two years ago. But his
popularity with those groups has
declined owing to his staunchly
conservitive stand on civil rights
and welfare programs, obser-
vers here told the Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency.
During the Sinai War in 1956,
when Nixon was Vice President
under President Dwight D. Eisen-
hower, he developed a personal re-
lationship with Abba Eban, now
Israel's Foreign Minister, who was
then Ambassador to Washington.
More recently, Nixon privately
met with Ambassador Rabin on the
subject of the current situation in
the Middle East. He asked Gen.
Rabin many questions about the
Middle East deadlock, Arab at-
titudes, Soviet involvement in the
area and Israel's defense require-
ments.
He will campaign on the new
Republican platform, including a
plank that he personally advocated,
urging the provision of supersonic
jet fighter planes to Israel and
"peace table talks among the ad-
versaries." The platform also spe-
cifically condems Soviet anti-Semi-
tism for the first time in the his-
tory of any U.S. national political
platform. It warned against an
American-Soviet detente at the ex-
pense of other nations. such as Is-
rael. Mr. Nixon may soon have an
opportunity to intervene on behalf
of Soviet Jewery and to seek an
easing of the Middle East crisis if
he makes the trip to Moscow that
he announced during the recent
campaign.
During the 1966 gubenatorial
campaign, Gov. Agnew was pre-
ferred by minority groups over his
Democratic opponent, George P.
Mahoney, a segregationist. But Mr.
Agnew's ties are closer to the white,
Anglo-Saxon, Protestant communi-
ties of rural Maryland than to Bal-
timore County with its more than
100,000 Jews, the largest Jewish
community in the state. The Gov-
ernor's relations with Maryland
Jews have been cordial if not par-
ticularly far ranging or deep. This
year he named a Jew, Saul Liss,
to the Supreme Bench of the City
Of Baltimore, the fifth Jew on the
bench. Last year he named another
Jew, Robert Hammerman, to the
same bench.
Last October he was named
"Man of the Year" of the Golden
Eagle Square and Compass Club,
the Jewish branch of the Masonic
order in Baltimore. In April, 1967,
he was named honorary chairman
of the Maryland State Committee
for Israel Bonds. A formal dinner
was held at the State House in
Annapolis in celebration of the
occasion.
Israeli newspapers commented
on the choice of Nixon. The Eng-
lish-language Jerusalem Post said
the choice indicated thatiAmerica's
internal problems rather than for-
eign policy will be the over-riding
issue of the Presidential campaign.
The independent daily, Haaretz
said that Nixon addresses himself
to foreign policy matters with a
"clean slate" and has reserved for
himself a large measure of free-
dom of action in the Middle East
situation. "Friendly words do not
bind him to pursue a policy in
complete accord with our de-
mands," Haaretz said.
WASHINGTON (JTA)— For-
mer Vice President Richard M.
Nixon takes a very serious view
of the Soviet re-armament of the
Arab states and believes that "the
first urgency is for America not
to allow the balance of power to
shift in favor of the militant Arab
states bent on a new war." Mr.
Nixon's detailed views on the Mid-
dle East were made available in
a statement to the American-Israel
Public Affairs Committee. pub-
lished in its periodical, Near East
Report, in May.
Mr. Nixon expressed grave con-
cern over the growth of Soviet
naval and military power in the
Mediterranean and what he con-
tended was the lack of an effective
American response. He said that
the U.S. "must see to it that Is-
rael's military strength is never
at a level vis-a-vis the Arab mili-
tants that will invite a war of re-
venge, the consequences of which
we could not possibly foresee and
which at all costs we must avoid."
He believed that the U.S. must
deal directly with the Soviets "and
impress upon them both the ur-
gency of keeping their client states
in check, and the dangers inherent
to the peace in any renewal of
the kind of wholesale Soviet irre-
sponsibility evident just prior to
the recent conflict."
The Presidential nominee urged
the U.S. to take the diplomatic
lead in forging a Middle East peace
settlement that should include
recognition of Israel's sovereignty
and a guaraptee that the Arab
territories currently occupied by
Israel "will never again be used
as bases for aggression or sanctu-
aries for terrorism." He said it
was "not realistic to expect Israel
to surrender these vital bargaining
counters in the absence of a genu-
ine peace and effective guaran-
tees." He cautioned, however "that
for Israel to take formal and final
possession of these occupied areas
would be a grave mistake."
Sinai Bedouins Vow
Allegiance to Israel,
Ask Jobs in Return
TEL AVIV (JTA)—The Bedouin
tribes of south and central Sinai
pledged their allegiance to the
state of Israel Sunday in colorful
ceremonies attended by 200 Israeli
guests.
More was involved than expres-
sions of friendship and loyalty,
however, Sheikh Abu Abdullah,
head of the largest of the 16
nomad tribes, asked the Israeli
representatives for greater em-
ployment opportunities and in-
creased government health serv-
ices for his people.
The ceremony, known as
"Hafleh"—Gathering—took place
in the Wadi Firan, near the Santa
Catherina Monastery at the foot
of the traditional Mt. Sinai of the
Exodus, attended by 800 Bedouin
leaders and their retinues, repre-
senting some 10,000 tribesmen.
They treated their Israeli guests
to a supper of mutton and rice,
topped off by Bedouin tea and
Arab coffee. They were enter-
ta,ienedinr
_tbhye the first films
they ever saw — the movie, "Sword
of All Baba" anu two Tsraeli docu-
mentaries in Arabic.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, August 16, 1968-9
New Ashdod Base for Enlarged Navy
TEL AVIV (JTA)—The Israel
Navy, which has been strengthened
since the Six-Day War, opened a
new base Tuesday at the southern
port of Ashdod on the Mediter-
ranean.
Adm. Shlomo Erel, Navy com-
mander, also reported that two
merchant ships purchased by Is-
rael had been refitted as war-
ships. The ships, the Bat Galim
and Bat Yam, sailed around South
Africa and are now patrolling the
Red Sea.
Since the 1967 war, Adm. Erel
reported, the main Navy mission
has been to patrol the southern
Mediterranean up to the ap-
proaches to the Egyptian Port Said
to prevent infiltration by sea.
Patrols are also continuing along
the northern Sinai shores where
the destroyer Eilat was sunk by
Soviet-made Styx missiles from
Egyptian craft. Israeli ships on the
Red Sea are delivering supplies
to Israeli units on the shores of
the Sinai peninsula.
Adm. Erel reported that Eilat
was not the only Israeli naval base
in that area. He said there was
another base near Sharm el
Sheikh, in the Strait of Tiran, at
the mouth of the Aqaba Gulf. The
Israeli public viewed the navy
ships at Haifa, Eilat and Ashdod
Tuesday, designated Navy Day.
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