Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, in an unprecedented public tribute to Israel, last night hailed before a distinguished dinner audience of British leaders “the qualities of energy, social and scientific progress and sheer physical achievement” recorded by Israel in the first decade of statehood.
In an impromptu remark after the dinner, the Prime Minister said that “never have relations between Israel and the United Kingdom been better since the establishment of the State.”
Mr. Macmillan, joined by Labor chief Hugh Gaitskell and Liberal party leader Jo Grimmond, paid tribute to Ambassador Eliahu Elath of Israel. The British political leaders spoke at a banquet at Grosvenor House sponsored by the Board of Deputies of British Jews in observance of Israel’s tenth anniversary and as a personal tribute to the Ambassador. The Prime Minister’s participation represented the first time in many years that a Prime Minister had so honored an Ambassador not leaving his post.
In his address, the Prime Minister said that in this year, when Israel was celebrating its tenth anniversary, “even its critics must concede these qualities.”
Surveying the Middle East, Mr. Macmillan said “the real and vital need of all the Arab peoples, which I would list as peace, economic progress and social development, can easily be affected by political and propaganda excitement but I am persuaded that all people of the Middle East yearn for stability and growth.”
Recalling the visit by Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister to London, Mr. Macmillan deplored the fact that he was absent from London at the time. He stressed that the result of Mrs. Meir’s visit was that “a good many misunderstandings have been removed and a great deal of suspicion and doubt has been cleared up and this is all to the good.”
“We wish Israel well and I trust our relations will remain strong and good on a basis of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation,” he added.
He emphasized that if peace was to be built, it must not be “periodically torn down by outbursts of violence. High standards of international behavior must be observed by all countries.” He said peace and prosperity in the Middle East would depend to a large extent on acceptance of such standards by all concerned. Hei insisted it was in the common interests of those countries that relations between the United Kingdom and Israel “continue to move forward with harmony.”
Opposition leader Hugh Gaitskell expressed a similar view, declaring that he believed that all Israel wants is to live in peace and he hoped that “she will be allowed to do so.” Mr. Gaitskell told the 600 dinner guests that the Arab countries, for which he expressed sympathy, should devote more energy to their internal affairs because it was through economic development that peace would eventually come to the Middle East.
Jo Grimmond, Liberal Party leader, told the dinner that Israel’s future must ultimately lie in “a fruitful alliance with her neighbors.” Peace in the Middle East will be a reality, he declared, when Israel is eventually accepted among her neighbors as a true Mediterranean power. He expressed his opinion that Israel has “enormous contributions to make in the Middle East.”
Ambassador Elath, replying to the speeches, stressed Britain’s special place in the history of the Jewish people and of Israel as the nation responsible for the Balfour Declaration which guaranteed the Jewish people a homeland after 2,000 years of exile. “Britain was first among the great powers to recognize the historic rights of the Jewish people in their ancient homeland and undertook to facilitate the up-building there of a national home,” Ambassador Elath said. “In so doing, Britain gave welcome encouragement to our people’s age-old hopes and to our endeavors to achieve in our time that for which earlier generations through 2,000 years of exile had ventured to pray and hope.”
Declaring that Israel had found many good friends in all walks of life in Britain, the Ambassador emphasized that in all his contacts with the Prime Minister, official and personal, “I have always been very sensible both of his personal kindness and of his sincere desire for better understanding and closer friendship between our two countries.” He underlined Israel’s “appreciation” of the British Governments “favorable response to our security needs, “adding that the Israel Government “desires to contributes its share to fostering closer relations between us (which) rests on a firm backing of public support.”
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.
