A plea for peace in the Middle East based on mutual respect between Israel and the Arab states was made here today by Ambassador Abba S. Eban, head of Israel’s delegation, in an address at the afternoon session of the week-long commemoration of the UN’s tenth anniversary.
Mr. Eban’s address like that of most delegates, did not touch upon political matters specifically but, instead, related itself to the broad principles motivating the United Nations. However, emphasizing Israel’s place in the UN, as a member-state that did not exist when the world organization was founded here ten years ago, Mr. Eban drew upon Judaism’s impact upon world cultures and upon Israel’s present place in the world to make his plea for peace between his state and the neighboring Arab countries.
Pointing out that “the presence of Israel in San Francisco today marks an act of historic remedy,” Mr. Eban referred to the decimation of large Jewish communities during the war that preceded founding of the UN, and declared that Israelis participation in UN affairs today “illustrates the sudden recuperation of the Jewish people from the lowest point in its historic fortunes to the dignity and opportunity which it had tenaciously pursued for two thousand years.”
“Israel’s accession to statehood within her meager limits of territory.” Mr. Eban said, “was accompanied in this very century by the liberation of our neighboring people in nine separate sovereignties, extending over a vast expanse replete with all the potentialities of political and economic strength. Never since the golden age of the Caliphates had the Arab world commanded such elements of actual and potential power as those which had now come within its grasp. There is nothing exceptional in Israel’s modest opportunity, nothing which should be envied or begrudged by those more lavishly endowed.”
“Thus,” Mr. Eban continued, “the long, majestic dream of successive Jewish generations has now completed its cycle of fulfillment. But the Middle East which, by every circumstance of tradition, should help to lead the world towards universal peace is itself plunged in the turmoil of regional strife. World statesmanship still has much to do in helping the kindred peoples of our region to establish peace on the basis of mutual respect for political independence and territorial integrity as our Charter provides.”
SAYS U.N. CHARTER ENCOURAGES DIRECT NEGOTIATION OF DISPUTES
The enforcement powers of the Security Council-before which Israel has not fared well in recent years when it brought complaints against Arab states–have proved “illusory,” the Israel representative reminded the delegates. However he saw hope for the world in the fact that the Council has shifted emphasis in recent years from efforts to enforce peace to attempts for “conciliation and pacific settlement.”
“The United Nations,” Mr. Eban stated, “has thus become something entirely different from the organization envisaged in this place ten years ago. Its purpose is now to promote peace by conciliation, rather than to enforce it by coercive restraint.”
Mr. Eban made further, indirect, reference to Israelis efforts to employ the United Nations for pacification of the Middle East by pointing out that direct negotiation of disputes among countries are encouraged under the provisions of the United Nations Charter. Israel has failed, thus far, to get any of the Arab states to discuss the possibility of extending the general armistice agreements into peace talks even when the UN itself has tried to get the Arab leaders to face up to Israel talks.
He appealed for use of the United Nations as “a court of ultimate appeal,” with emphasis upon direct negotiations among states. “If parties to a dispute lack sufficient good will to attempt a settlement by direct negotiation.” he declared, “then a demonstration of their disagreements by public debate is not likely to do more than aggravate their conflict. For any State or group of States to refuse even to attempt a settlement by direct contact and free negotiation is to violate the essence of the Charter and to swim against the whole current of contemporary international experience.”
Pointing out that Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold had intervened successfully on behalf of the UN in other cases, Mr. Eban emphasized the possibility that the UN could and should help bring Israel together with the Arab states.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
