France under DeGaulle having treacherously abandoned her erstwhile ally. The Congress responded favorably to the administrations requests for necessary legislation to authorize the sale of arms for cash or on credit. In 1972 a bill was introduced by Senator Mus=m in the Senate and by me in the House authorizing $85 million in aid to Israel to help in the absorption of refugees from the Soviet Union. Although the Nixon administration did not support this bill. the Congress responded favorably and it was enacted into law. This aid program has continued to date. In the foreign aid appropriation bill just passed by the House. $35 million is provided for this purpose for the present fiscal year. I worked closely with the chairman of the subcommittee concerned to make sure that this amount would be included in spite of the fact that the numbers of Soviet refugees arriving in Israel has markedly declined. Another striking example of congressional response to Israeli needs occurred in 1973. right after the Yom Kippur war. In accordance with an Israeli request. the administration asked Congress for $2.2 billion in military aid to Israel.
Keywords matched
refugees