Conservative Party’s Victory Seen Unlikely to Alter Israel’s Relations with Britain

Premier Golda Meir today cabled “warm congratulations and every good wish” to Britain’s new Prime Minister, Edward Heath whose Conservative Party won an upset victory in Britain’s national elections last Thursday. Mrs. Meir added. “It is with particular pleasure that I recall your visit to Israel last year (in April) and I am confident that under your distinguished leadership Britain’s relations with Israel will continue to develop on the foundations of mutual constructive friendship.” The Conservative Party’s victory was seen here as unlikely to alter Israel’s relations with the United Kingdom. Political circles here believe that if there is any change at all in Britain’s policy toward the Middle East conflict it will be for the better from Israel’s point of view if only because the Tories have “greater sensitivity” toward Soviet penetration of the region. The independent daily Haaretz said today that “It is a fair assumption that a Tory government’s views on the need to curb the Soviet incursion into the Middle East and the Persian Gulf will be more vigorous than those of the Labor government and will find expression at the United Nations, in the Four Power talks and in contacts between Washington and Moscow.”

Menachem Belgin, leader of the right-wing Herut Party said today that he was favorably impressed by Mr. Heath who he met a year ago and regarded him as an “ardent friend” of Israel. Political circles here pointed out that despite the extremely cordial relations that exist between Britain’s Labor Party and the Israel Labor Party, there has always been a vast discrepancy between Labor’s sympathy toward Israel and its performance while in office. The blatantly anti-Zionist role of the late Ernest Bevin, the Labor Foreign Secretary during the immediate pre-statehood era, was recalled by some today. More recently, it was noted, the Labor government refused to sell Chieftain tanks to Israel because of political expediency. The daily Yediot Aharonot said editorially, “We can certainly only gain from the change of government in England. Mr. Heath is described as our friend and Sir Alec Douglas-Home (the new Foreign Secretary-designate) is certainly not our enemy.” Maariv consigned Laborite Prime Minister Harold Wilson to limbo. “He has failed, he was too clever by half,” the paper said. But the Histadrut newspaper Davar expressed regret over Mr. Wilson’s defeat. “For all the disappointments Israel has suffered from the Wilson government, one cannot but feel regret over the British election results. They do not necessarily reflect the Conservative’s victory but rather the failure of the Labor Party,” Davar said.