Office of the Historian

884A.00 TA/11–1553

No. 735
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs (Byroade) to the Secretary of State1

secret
Washington, November 20, 1953.

Subject:

  • Financial Aid to Israel

Discussion:

Israeli officials here are pressing Mr. Stassen to make available to Israel $20 million in cash from the allotment of $26 million recently decided upon for the first half of the current fiscal year. We have received two important telegrams from Tel Aviv on this subject, No. 592 of November 15,2 and No. 598 of November 173 (Tabs B and C). The message of November 18 contains a firm recommendation from the Embassy against a release of cash, which it regards as unnecessary, and a significant statement that an Israeli official has implied that the cash release was being pressed in Washington in order not to let the opportunity to challenge Section 105 of the [Page 1432] 1953 Appropriations Act go by default. This section was inserted during the Hearings before the Senate Appropriations Committee, and the record of the hearings indicates that its authors, concerned with past cash releases to Israel, considered it necessary to prevent such releases in the future.

Recommendation:

(a)
That you sign the attached draft letter to Mr. Stassen (Tab A);4 or, alternatively,
(b)
That you advise Mr. Stassen verbally that the Department is opposed to the release of cash to Israel in view of the information in recent cables from Tel Aviv and the legislative history of the Appropriations Act.

  1. Sent through the Executive Secretariat.↩
  2. Document 729.↩
  3. Document 731.↩

  4. Not printed; the Secretary signed a letter to Stassen on Nov. 21 which reads as follows:

    “I understand that the Israeli Embassy has approached you for a cash release in the amount of $20 million on the grounds that these funds are required to meet pressing obligations of Israel and that the alternative to an acquiescence in this request is default by Israel.

    “I am inclined to share the joint opinion of the Embassy and Operations Mission at Tel Aviv expressed in messages No. 592 of November 15 and No. 598 of November 17.” (884A.00 TA/11–1553)

    ↩