ustxtxb_obs_1973_11_02_50_00014-00000_000.pdf

A Public Service Message from the American Income Life Insurance CompanyExecutive offices, Waco, TexasBernard Rapoport, Pres. STATEMENT OF EUGENE McCARTHY ON THE ARAB-ISRAELI Responsibility for the renewal of the Arab war against Israel rests with Egypt and Syria, emboldened by a massive supply of sophisticated weapons provided by the Soviet Union. But they were also decisively encouraged to break the ceasefire by those Americans urging retreat from our policy of support for Israel’s security and survival needs. The historical record -in 1956 and 1957, in 1967, and during the attrition war of 1969 and 1970 -amply demonstrates that any sign of American equivocation in the Middle East is an inducement to Arab adventurism. Such is the case today. These inducements have come from an odd coalition in our country. Equating their own special interests with the national interest, some oil companies have sought to blame Israel for an energy shortage having nothing to do with the existence of Israel and having very little to do with our support for it. At the sane time, some in the liberal community have foolishly adopted the facile antiIsraeli rhetoric of Third World politics . From whatever source, calls for American neutrality in the Middle East offend every sense of justice and international morality. For the clearly and oft-stated aims of Arab governments and terrorists alike confirm that this conflict is no ordinary territorial dispute between contending parties respecting each other’s sovereignty, no Mid-East version of the Alsace-Lorraine question. Until the Arabs actually sit and negotiate a direct settlement with Israel, people will wisely suspect that they still dream of old maps without Israel. In this regard, it is my view that the United Nations has shown itself to be a particularly unsatisfactory forum for resolving or even considering the ArabIsraeli conflict in either its long-standing or most recent manifestations. I am persuaded that Israel refrained from pre-emptive response to the tremendous buildup it observed on the ceasefire lines largely because our government assured it that the Arabs did not intend war. This imposes a further moral obligation on the United States to sustain Israel’s strength in its efforts to reverse the present perils and defend itself against aggression. October 8, 1973 /s/ Eugene J. McCarthy