Israel's Best Friend in Congress

When war broke out in the Middle East, Senator Henry ("Scoop") Jackson proved once again that Israel has no firmer friend on Capitol Hill. He was the first in the Senate to call for massive U.S. military aid to Israel; he advocated a decisive Israeli victory; he offered the harshest criticism of the policy of detente. "In recent months," he said, "the flow of Soviet arms into Syria reached floodlike proportions, and yet Dr. Kissinger comes before the American people to say that Soviet behavior has been moderate and not irresponsible. I cannot agree. I believe that Soviet behavior in the Middle East has been reckless and irresponsible."

When the Arab nations agreed to cut oil production by 5%, Jackson proposed a bill that would ration oil in the U.S. "I believe the Administration should start printing the tickets and have the machinery on standby, so we don't get caught like we did in Pearl Harbor."

Such militancy over Israel comes from a 61 -year-old, mild-mannered Presbyterian who represents the state of Washington, where Jews constitute a mere .44% of the population. On the national scene, the Jewish vote of course is more important, and Jackson has presidential aspirations. There would be more than a whiff of opportunism to his posture if it were not perfectly consistent with the views he has expressed in his 21 years in the Senate. He is an unrepentant cold warrior who still refers to "Reds" and "Commies" in his private conversation. Fearing that the Soviet Union means to dupe the U.S. most of the time, he has supported big defense spending, the anti-ballistic-missile system and the Trident submarine.

He has in particular sniped at detente ever since the word was first used to signify a lessening of tension between the U.S. and Russia. Last year he was chiefly responsible for passage of an amendment requiring the U.S. to maintain parity with Russia on all weapons in the SALT agreement. More recently, he introduced the Jackson Amendment to the trade bill; it denies most-favored-nation status to any country that does not permit free emigration--a measure aimed at the Soviet Union's refusal to let Jews leave for Israel.

Jackson is not only determined, he is also effective--a fact that is recognized by allies and opponents alike. He does his homework; he is earnest and honest. He is nothing if not himself: plainspoken, no shaggy locks, rimless glasses or any other concession to youth or fashion. He operates from an almost impregnable position in the Senate, where he is chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and a member of the Armed Services Committee, the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, and the Government Operations Committee.

Most important, he is chairman of the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee of Government Operations, a post he has used to mount assaults on Administration foreign policy. Says a Senate dove who disagrees with Jackson: "Senators like John Tower, Barry Goldwater and Strom Thurmond, who hold a view of the world that is similar to Scoop's, have been at a loss to know how to cope with a self-styled Republican conservative in the White House who has undertaken to establish normal relations with the Soviet Union. Jackson has found the Achilles' heel in Nixon's foreign policy. He has opened fissures that have dealt very strong blows to that policy."

For all his tough talk, Jackson is as skilled at compromising an issue as at dramatizing it. Partisan of big defense that he is, he has worked behind the scenes to scale down Pentagon budget requests so that they would be acceptable to the Senate. Though he is adamant about maintaining U.S. forces in Europe, he joined Senator Sam Nunn in introducing an amendment to the Defense Appropriation Bill that would require European nations to share the cost of the troop commitment; the amendment was passed. He and his staff are huddling with both the White House and Soviet diplomats to try to work out a compromise on the trade bill. "Scoop does not see things in black and white," says Richard Perle, a member of his staff. "His policy is usually to support an Administration's foreign policy initiatives, but to do so with reservations."

One of the obvious and highly purposeful contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, Scoop maintains his liberal domestic credentials along with his hawkish foreign policy--a delicate balancing act. He reminds his critics that he was an early, ardent foe of Senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. By liberal standards, his voting record on labor and civil rights is flawless. Though he wrote the legislation permitting the Alaska pipeline, he is the only member of the Senate who has received the Sierra Club's John Muir award for his efforts on behalf of the environment. His own political conduct is punctilious; he does not indulge in inflammatory rhetoric or ad hominem attacks. "I hate emotion in anything," says Jackson, "even in religion. If you master the facts, then you can posture yourself in such a way that you can persuade people of your point of view."

One man's facts, of course, can be another man's fiction. By imputing the worst motives to the Soviets, Jackson is not likely to be proved gullible or an easy mark. On the other hand, detente will not be achieved without taking some calculated risks on both sides. What U.S. diplomacy lacked before Kissinger was a certain creative imagination. Jackson's meat-ax approach threatens to cut off any new departures before they can be proved successful.

Obviously, U.S. foreign policy depends at least to an extent on where Jackson stands, and he insists that he does not stand in the way of peace. "I'm in favor of detente, but if there is to be true detente, there must be a movement of peoples and ideas across international frontiers--not just cargo. When I see tens of thousands of Russian tourists coming to the U.S. the way Americans now go to the Soviet Union, then I'll say there's some evidence of change." A tall order from a man as capable as anyone in the Senate of enforcing it. In the meantime, in the interests of detente, in the interest of his own presidential ambitions, Scoop may have to show that he is willing to settle for something less.

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