Word: meire
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...odds with the U.S., its closest friend and its only real source of weapons. Washington considers Jerusalem intransigent, while Israelis resent U.S. attempts to pressure them into negotiating with the Arabs, most notably by withholding 50 Phantom jet fighters. The quarrel has become so abrasive that Premier Golda Meir flew to Washington last week in an effort to resolve it directly with President Nixon...
...View from Washington. Mrs. Meir had ample opportunity to state her position last week. There was a three-hour luncheon with Secretary of State William Rogers and Assistant Secretary Joseph Sisco, followed by a two-hour meeting alone with Nixon in the Oval Office. Once again, she asked-in vain for the time being-for the phantom Phantoms, which Washington has refused since spring to deliver, on the grounds that the planes would upset the military balance in the Middle East...
Nixon in return guaranteed that the Phantoms would be forthcoming-not now, but whenever the U.S. deems that they are needed. He promised further that he would make no agreements during his visits to Moscow and Peking that would compromise Israel. Afterward Mrs. Meir told newsmen: "I went away with the feeling that there is definitely better understanding of the Israeli way of looking at it. I guess that's the most one can ask of a friend." She still wanted Phantoms. "Our neighbors are much more apt to refrain from war and more inclined toward negotiations when Israel...
Ample Leverage. Mrs. Meir arrives this week for a face-to-face confrontation with President Nixon. Her friends in the U.S. gave her ample leverage last week. The Senate voted 81 to 14 for $500 million in military credits for Israel, half of it specifically earmarked for Phantoms. Eight Senators representing both parties meanwhile paid a private call on Secretary of State William Rogers to urge him to change his stand on Phantoms for Israel. Rogers not only stood fast but told the group that Israel's intransigence on peace terms was isolating it in world opinion...
Rogers is likely to say as much to Mrs. Meir; in addition, U.S. officials will contend that even if they did approve Israel's purchase of more Phantoms, the planes would be a long time coming off production lines. The fact is that if Washington wanted to, it could provide the planes almost immediately. Two years ago, a fleet of 50 Phantoms for Israel was put together out of allotments ticketed for the U.S. Air Force; the planes were hurriedly swabbed with the white and blue insignia of Israel and rushed across the Atlantic. Plainly the Administration is sidetracking...