Fulbright Suggests Treaty With Israel

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32383, 24 August 1970, Page 13

Fulbright Suggests Treaty With Israel

(N.Z Press Association— i Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 23. Senator William Fulbright today proposed a bilateral treaty with Israel to guarantee its borders, by force if necessary, as the final step in a settlement of the Middle East struggle.

Senator Fulbright emphasised that such a treaty would be acceptable only if the United Nations first settled the conflict, “imposing” terms if necessary, and firmly guaranteed the security of both Israel and the Arab States with a formal agreement ratified by all parties.

Under no condition, he said, should such a treaty be submitted to the Senate now. It should serve only as a supplement to the United Nations agreement. The proposal was broached in a speech which Senator Fulbright will deliver to the| Senate on Monday—a 37page document in which the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee spelled out his views on the! Middle East for the first | time.

The State Department had no immediate comment on Senator Fulbright’s speech, U.P.I. said that the speech was likely to anger the Israelis, who have little faith in the United Nations and are adamantly opposed to imposed settlement. The Arab countries probably would object to greater United States involvement in the Middle East, specifically in the form of a treaty commitment to Israel. The treaty proposal came as something of a surprise. Senator Fulbright has been a foremost advocate of a shrinking of United States commitments abroad. He told journalists that there was nothing inconsistent in his proposal. What he had objected to most strenuously, he said, was secret Executive agreements negotiated without the consent of Congress. Senator Fulbright criticised Israel for continued occupation of Arab soil and praised the Arab States for moderating their opposition to the' Jewish State. But he said: that the United States should frankly recognise its “sent!-, mental and cultural bonds" with Israel. He said that the nation’s leaders should stop rationalis-: ing United States involvement: “in terms of grandiose geopolitical concepts” and recog- L nise that “there is nothing J, wrong with a policy based on | sentimental attachments." ( Under Senator Fulbright’s M plan, the United Nations Security Council would gua- 1 ' rantee and enforce peace terms, including a return of occupied. lands and compensation and of Palestinian refugees. The guarantee would include stationing United: Nations forces in military neutralised ion ■ at all points critical to Israel’s security:: free passage for Israeli ships through the Suez Canal and

.the Strait of Tiran; and a I restoration of the ArabIsraeli frontiers that existed : before the June, 1987, war. The Security Council would “enforce the peace and all its specification." [ The United States—by treaty approved by the Senate —would assure Israel “of the American intent to honour the multilateral guarantee of the United Nations." ’ Israel would agree never to violate the .1967 borders. Both sides in the Middle 'East struggle has committed “myths of mutual victimisation," the Senator said. t “The Jews are obsessed with the fear of a repetition of the Nazi holocaust and the Arabs do nothing to allay this fear with extravagant talk about ‘holy wars' ent' about throwing the Jews into the sea.” he said. The Arabs, he said, feared Israel’s encouragement of immigration from all over the world.

Israeli policy, he said, had “a touch of paranoia about it —just as there is in our own attitude toward Communism,” Senator Fulbright said that the' return of the conquered territories was the major

single requirement for peace. As for th* Palestinian refugees, Senator Fulbright said: “They have been done a great historical injustice." But they must aeeept Israel's existence. Israel, on the other hand, must be ready with “generous financial support, both to compensate these refugees for their losses and to facilitate their resettlement.”