Abie Nathan, Israel’s one-man Israel-Arab peace promoter, arrived at New York’s international airport tonight and told a throng of newsmen that he had come to the United States "to convey the feelings of the people of Israel for peace," and that he was seeking "to meet anyone who can further the cause."
The Tel Aviv restaurant owner and former airlines pilot arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport from Paris, his third stop on a tour he launched immediately after his recent dramatic flight to Port Said in an ancient biplane. He had hoped to see President Ilasser of Egypt, but Port Said officials there refused to permit him to do so. They patched and refueled his plane, and he returned to Israel the next day to become an overnight hero and world figure.
Before coming to New York, Nathan visited Rome, where he was given an audience by Pope Paul VI, conferred with others in Italy interested in peace, and went on to Paris where he met prominent Frenchmen — but not President Charles de Gaulle.
Upon his arrival at the airport, Mr. Nathan said: "If the Israeli Government could come to terms with West Germany after the killing of 6,000,000 Jews, I am sure that the Israelis and Arabs can get together too." He said that he felt his flight to Port Said "was a crack in the wall toward peace in the Middle East."
He summed up his mission with the statement that he was seeking someone to do for the Middle East what Soviet Premier Kosygin did at Tashkent. That Soviet city was the site of a Soviet-sponsored meeting between Pakistan and India, at which the two countries agreed to a truce in their war over Kashmir.
SAYS HE HOPES TO MEET WITH SEN. ROBERT KENNEDY, CARDINAL SPELLMAN
The Israeli, who said he planned to stay in the United States for 10 days to two weeks, said he had written to many American dignitaries in an effort to arrange meetings, but that he had no definite appointments with any of them. He said he had received a "friendly reply" from Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, but no commitment for a meeting. He said he would also try to see Francis Cardinal Spellman, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York.
He disclosed that he had accepted an invitation to speak at a protest rally in New York City Saturday against United States participation in the South Viet Nam war, and that he had done so because he had been told that Negro civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sen. Kennedy and Sen. J. William Fulbright would address the meeting. Reporters informed him that this information was not accurate.
He disclosed that, prior to his abortive flight to Egypt, he had written to United Nations Undersecretary Ralph J. Bunche, and that he had received a reply from the U.N. official, urging him to drop the idea.
Mr. Nathan confirmed a statement issued here by the Action Committee on American-Arab relations, a pro-Arab group, that he would meet tomorrow with its general-secretary, Dr. M.T. Mehdi. The Arab group, which advocates the emigration from Israel of much of its Jewish population, announced that it would hold a press conference tomorrow, immediately after the Nathan-Mehdi meeting. However, the Israeli indicated that he did not know very much about the organization, other than that he had been told it too was interested in an Arab-Israel peace. Mrs. Mehdi and another representative of the group attended the press conference at the airport tonight.
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.
