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The official answer seemed to be: Not very much. Said Vance: "Our commitment to Israel is fundamental. It is unchanging. Israel can count on us for support as far as security is concerned." Reported TIME State Department Correspondent Christopher Ogden: "Providing the planes might not seem to be a desirable way of promoting peace, but the alternative, shutting off the Egyptians and Saudis, was worse. Administration officials felt there was an excellent chance of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's being overthrown if Washington did not back his portion of the plane agreement. They were also sure that rejection of the Saudi F-15s would have lost the U.S. considerable Saudi support."
There was certainly a sense in Middle East capitals that more than mere military hardware was at stake in the Senate. Declared Sadat: "The true value of the deal does not lie in the "number or types of planes approved but in overcoming a situation created by the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel."
Israeli reaction was predictably bitter, and much of the anger was directed at Premier Menachem Begin. Wrongly counting on Congress's traditional support for Israel, he opposed the sale of fighters to Saudi Arabia. Then, two days before the vote, he realized that he had miscalculated Israel's strength. Switching tactics, he directed his embassy to fight the entire package. But it was too late. Begin called the Senate's decision "a negative turn for the security of Israel." He added: "An attempt is being made to impose peace terms on us." Former Premier Yitzhak Rabin called the plane deal "the greatest setback for Israel in the U.S. since the Six-Day War," when the U.S. refused to put pressure on Egypt to end its blockade of Israel's water route to the Red Sea.
Some U.S. supporters of Israel reacted in similarly apocalyptic terms. "The bond of trust has been broken," said Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. Jewish leaders reported a wave of bitterness among Jews across the country. "I'm mad as hell," said Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, chairman of the 33-member Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. More than 1,000 Jewish students from New York demonstrated outside the White House, some carrying coffins symbolizing "the death of American morality." To such charges, and to equally groundless accusations of anti-Semitism on the part of the Administration, White House Press Secretary Jody Powell retorted, with good cause, "If honest debate cannot be conducted among honest people without allegations of the basest motives, then our society is in sad shape."