Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, today continued a series of private conversations she has been holding all this week with leaders of delegations and heads of foreign affairs attending the General Assembly. This morning she conferred with Horacio Lafer, Brazil’s Minister for External Relations. In the evening she met with Italy’s delegation chairman, Gaetano Martino.
As in her conferences yesterday with United States Secretary of State Christian A. Herter and Britain’s Foreign Secretary, the Earl of Home. Mrs. Meir is understood to have discussed general issues of interest in the normal relations between Israel and the respective governments. No concrete issues or matters of immediate interest were said to have been discussed in any of the conferences.
Nevertheless, observers here noted today, Israel’s position, as a result of the many contacts made by Mrs. Meir and by other leading members of the Israeli delegation, is firmer now than it was prior to the call by United Arab Republic President Gamal Abdel Nasser two days ago for the reversal of history by eliminating the “crime” of the establishment of Jewish settlements in Palestine, and later the State of Israel as a consequence of the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Forty-eight hours after Nasser had proposed the virtual elimination of Israel’s existence, more and more delegations here were saying freely that Nasser had overplayed his hand in regard to Israel. Many Westerners, Latin Americans and Afro-Asians now believe that Nasser’s extreme position regarding Israel has only defeated whatever purpose he may have had in mind.
“Practical and realistic efforts” by the United Nations to solve the Arab-Israel dispute were called for in the Assembly today by B.P. Koirala. Prime Minister of Nepal. He told the United Nations that “With regard to the Middle East situation it is the view of my Government that we must recognize and accept political realities in the Middle East region.”
Pakistan today disputed the suggestion made here last week by Ghana for recognition of Israel’s existence as “political realism,” and, instead, upheld the Arab thesis that the only reality in the Arab-Israel disputes lies in the “return” of the Arab refugee to Israel. This attitude was announced in the General Assembly by the chairman of the Pakistanian delegation, Zulkifar Ali Bhutto.
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.
