Perot Praises Israel in Speech to Jewish Group

In a staunch defense of Israel, Texas billionaire Ross Perot said Tuesday that Israel is a beacon and role model for democracy in the troubled Middle East.

“Israel is our friend. Israel has been our friend during the recent war,” the potential presidential candidate told an award dinner of the American Jewish Committee in Manhattan. “And you stand by your friends. It’s just that simple.

“Israel is a beacon in its part of the world in terms of its democratic government. It is a role model to the others there,” Perot said, calling on Americans to figure out ways to help economically strengthen the Jewish state.

It was one of Perot’s last public speeches before sharply curtailing appearances while he formulates positions on major issues and builds a campaign organization.

Unless there is a shift in the scenario, sources said, Perot is expected to announce on June 27--his 62nd birthday--that he will seek the nation’s highest office. In the past, he has used his birthday to launch significant new business ventures.

Perot started his former company, Electronic Data Systems, in 1962 on his birthday. He was discharged from the Navy on his birthday. On another birthday he was sworn in as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy.

In anticipation of the announcement, Random House Inc., the New York publisher, is rushing to complete a biography of the billionaire by veteran author Ken Gross. Campaign staffers are being recruited and office space has been expanded in Dallas. Perot has hired John P. White, an assistant defense secretary in the Jimmy Carter Administration, to serve as his policy coordinator.

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun earlier Tuesday, Perot said efforts by the Republican Party to scare him out of the presidential race only strengthen his resolve to run.

He denied recent news reports that suggest that he tried to play an insider’s role in Richard M. Nixon’s Administration. Perot attributed them to unspecified Republicans and warned that they might regret airing them, hinting that they were providing him with ammunition he might use against the Republicans before the November election.

Organizations are in place in all 50 states to put his name on general election ballots. About 3,000 of his supporters marched to the Texas Capitol in Austin on Monday with more than 200,000 signatures designed to assure him a ballot line in November.

In his speech to the American Jewish Committee, Perot did not spell out his position on such politically sensitive issues as loan guarantees to the Jewish state and whether he supports the continued building of settlements on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.