Discussion on US-Israel Relations

It isn't a question of whether I felt it.

Uh, the fact is that American Jews support

Israel, uh, and

I understood that. And the fact is that every Jewish prime minister

that I have

known, uh, has enlisted American

Jews to bring as much pressure as possible in the political process

on American presidents. That's understandable.

I don't object to it.

Now, a president must not go along with it on

occasion, uh, because some--

Let, let me, let me explain something about what

is called the

Jewish lobby in this country.

In the first place,

Jews understandably in the United States,

because of what happened in World War II, because of the Holocaust,

uh, are going to p-put first priority on the

survival of

Israel.

Now, as good Americans, as they are, uh, they

believe that America's

survival and security is directly

related to Israel's. In other words, their belief

is that being for Israel first, uh, means

that that does not mean you're putting America second, because they think it goes

together. An American president, however, has to approach it in a different way, in

my opinion.

He's got always to think first of what is best for America, and

that's true whether it has to do with the Israelis or whether it has to do

with the Irish or the Germans or what have you, or the Poles, et cetera.

Uh, usually what is best for America is also best for Israel

and vice versa. But on, on occasions, for

example, an American president must make a

decision, uh,

that does not in effect give the Israelis a blank check, and

one example of that is a decision that I made.

Uh, I decided early on in our administration

that we were going to seek good

relations with Egypt and other,

others of Israel's, uh, neighbors.

Uh, many of my Israeli friends, uh, didn't like that, uh, because they

wanted a special relationship with Israel and Israel only.

But I have always said, uh, that Israel's interests

are better served to

have the United States a friend of Israel's neighbors and potential

enemies than to leave a vacuum which the Soviet Union would fill.

I still believe that, and I think that should be American policy today.