S/PRS files, lot 77 D 22
No. 698
Verbatim Record of the Press and Radio
News Conference of the Secretary of State, Washington, October 20,
1953
[Extract]
Q. Mr. Secretary, has the United States cut off aid to Israel for the time being until that situation out there has quieted down?
[Page 1370]A. We are continuing, as I understand it, our so-called technical cooperation aid. As far as the allocation of funds is concerned out of the amount which was made available by the last Mutual Security Act there has been no allocation, as yet, to Israel, and we have deferred making that in view of the problems which exist in that area between the United Nations and Israel.
That deferment of allocation was made at the time of the decision of General Bennike with reference to the water development of the Jordan. It was not based upon the more recent incidents.
Q. Mr. Secretary, has Israel been informed of this decision to defer any allocation?
A. They know they haven’t got it.
Q. Can you tell us the sum involved, sir?
A. I beg your pardon.
Q. Some indication of the size of the sum involved?
A. Well, this year, for the first time, the Congress did not itself attempt to make any allocation between Israel and the Arab States. There was a total sum which was set apart for that area, leaving the discretion in the Executive, as to how it should be allocated. I am sorry to say that I can’t remember what that total sum was. Does anybody here remember?
Mr. Suydam: In the order of $50,000,000 or $60,000,000.
A. No. it was more than that. I think the total sum was in the neighborhood of $100,000,000, as I recall. I think we asked for a total of $140,000,000—that’s my impression—and it was cut down in the authorization or appropriations to somewhere around $100,000,000 as a total sum.
Q. Mr. Secretary, have there been any allocations to the Arab States to that fund?
A. I beg your pardon?
Q. Have there been any allocations to the Arab States under that fund?
A. I just don’t know. I don’t think it has been done in any important way except as it may have been drawn on in the allocation that was made to the Government of Iran, which was announced some time ago. I doubt whether any other allocations have been made, although they may have been.
Q. Mr. Secretary, could you tell us more precisely why the allocation to Israel has been deferred?
A. It was deferred because it seemed to us that the State of Israel should respect General Bennike’s decision, and that as long as the State of Israel was acting in defiance of that decision it was questionable at least as to whether we should make the allocation. I [Page 1371] might add we recognize that there was a right of appeal from General Bennike’s decision to the Security Council, but we felt that pending the exercise of that appeal that it would have been better that the work be suspended unless General Bennike agreed that it could go on without prejudice to the interests which he thought were jeopardized on the part of Syria.
Q. Do you mean, sir, on the hydro-electric project?
A. Well, it is a dam—water diversion project, yes.
Q. Mr. Secretary, does the move by the Israeli Government to transfer its capital to Jerusalem enter into this decision in any way?
A. No, except that it seemed to provide a greater reason for taking seriously this last refusal. There was a certain cumulative effect to it, I suppose.1
Q. Thank you, sir.
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Department of State Press Release No. 594 of Oct. 23 contained quotations from the Secretary’s responses in this press conference to questions concerning aid to Israel; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, Nov. 2, 1953, p. 589.
The Department on Oct. 22 authorized the Ambassadors in the Arab capitals and the Consul at Jerusalem to disclose at their discretion to the governments to which they were accredited significant portions of telegram 276 to Tel Aviv, Oct. 9 (611.84A/10–953), summarizing the Secretary’s conversation with Eban. The Department suggested that the U.S. representatives also draw attention to the press release of Oct. 18 concerning the Qibya incident and to the Secretary’s remarks at his press conference of Oct. 20 concerning the withholding of economic aid to Israel. (Telegram 183 to Amman, Oct. 22, 7:49 p.m., repeated to Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Jidda, and Jerusalem, and for information to Tel Aviv, London, and Paris; 611.84A/10–2253)
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