Mrs. Meir Raps Illusory Peace Efforts; Debate Continues on Goldmann-nasser Affair

Premier Golda Meir voiced some strong criticism of Dr. Nahum Goldmann’s political views and his aborted mission to meet with President Gamal Abdel Nasser in Cairo. Mrs. Meir did not refer directly to the affair but her implication was clear when she claimed. “An untrue peace is more dangerous than no peace at all and leads directly to another war.” Mrs. Meir spoke at the 12th convention of Tnuat Hamoshavim, the small holders settlement movement. She said, “Three years after war we have not yet achieved peace and it seems those who produce ‘special formulas’ for peace-making, a shortcut to peace. There is no short cut to peace. Some people are ready to throw the baby out with the bath water in their hasty pursuit of illusions and they have no assurances that at the end of the road there will be hands outstretched,” Mrs. Meir added. “Whoever makes concessions easily is not to be trusted. All of us seek peace, but more dangerous than the absence of peace is the illusory peace that leads to a new war.”

Some leading Israeli newspapers were sharply critical today of the way the government handled the “Goldmann affair.” The independent daily Haaretz accused Mrs. Meir of lacking the courage to make a decision of her own and thereby “scotched the plan” by bringing the issue before her coalition Cabinet. The paper was also critical of Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Haaretz said that what Mr. Eban rejected “was not the system of unofficial feelers towards a solution but the individual who had offered his services. This is not the way Eban will win the sympathies of the Hawks in our midst.” Al Hamishmar, organ of the Mapam faction, said that neither those who supported or those who rejected the Goldmann plan are pleased over the form and content of the Cabinet’s negation of it. “Israel would have lost nothing if he had been allowed to discover what was really behind the suggestion that he visit Cairo,” the paper said. Davar, organ of Histadrut, urged Dr. Goldmann to clear up the doubts and contradictions that appear in various published versions of the affair. But the Socialist newspaper claimed that “the more details come to light, the more does it appear that the entire affair of Dr. Goldmann’s so-called invitation was imaginary and misleading if not worse, for there has not been any hint of a sincere attempt on Cairo’s part to put out feelers for peace with Israel.” Hatzofe, organ of the National Religious Party, said the Cabinet’s decision on Dr. Goldmann’s visit was “as superfluous as the Knesset’s debate on government initiative.” The paper said “it is not Goldmann alone who has caused damage but all those who have dealt with the affair so disastrously since it began.”