Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban reaffirmed to the General Assembly today his government’s determination not to return to the Gunnar V. Jarring peace talks before the Egyptian missile advantage gained in violation of the standstill provisions of the cease-fire is nullified. “When we reflect on our experience with the ‘hopes and expectations of 1957’ and with this latest incident.” the Israeli diplomat declared, “we become fortified in our resolve to insist that all peace engagements be direct explicit and signed and sealed in the most precise contractual form. Israel is ready to resume discussions under Ambassador Jarring’s auspices as soon as the violations are rectified and the situation prevailing on the day of the cease-fire restored.” Egypt’s standstill abrogation. Mr. Eban said, was a singularly “perfidious violation of an international agreement through the exploitation of the good faith and pacific intention of the other side.”
It has resulted, he continued, in a “collapse of confidence in the validity of Egypt’s pledge.” and “has cast an anticipatory shadow on the validity of any peace agreement which we might hope to conclude.” In addition, he said, the “endorsement” of that abrogation by the Soviet Union is “a major international event” because “its repercussions go beyond the Middle East; they affect crucial issues of peace and security in other continents of the world.” Mr. Eban offered to “use my presence here for talks with heads of Arab delegations on the establishment of peace and on the creation of the atmosphere and conditions in which a fruitful negotiation can take place.” There is, he said, “no rational or defensible reason for refusing such an opportunity.”
In the first of a series of Arab replies to Mr. Eban’s address, Egyptian Ambassador Mohamed H. El-Zayyat said the first violation of the truce occurred when Israeli planes crossed the Suez the night of Aug. 7-8. He said the UN should “forcefully” oppose Israeli “aggression.” charging that Israel was “seeking the freedom to invade without hindrance to the parts (of Arab territory) not yet occupied.” He said Egypt “cannot allow” the “freedom to intimidate and dictate” possessed by Israel through deliveries of American weaponry that “do away with all the principles of the United Nations Charter.” If Mr. Eban is interested in peace contacts, Dr. El-Zayyat remarked. “The way for that is to go and see Mr. Jarring. Mr. Jarring is here in his room.” The Egyptian charged that the two dozen anti-Israel Security Council resolutions since 1948 have been “left to gather to dust on the shelf of the United Nations.” Regarding what he called the “so-called terrorist groups,” he said that if the Palestinians cannot obtain their aims under law, “what’s wrong with terror?” Mr. Eban and Dr. El-Zayyat each received 10 seconds of polite applause from the Assembly.
EBAN DECLARES ISRAEL WANTS PEACE; CASTIGATES UN, WARNS OF SOVIET DANGER, DENOUNCES HIJACKING
In his speech, the Israeli Foreign Minister made these additional major points: The UN “exerts no more than a marginal influence on the main issues of conflict, and the central currents of international thought and action flow outside its walls”, “The Soviet intervention does not concern Israel alone. Its other aims are to win predominance in the Mediterranean; to outflank the European defense system from the south, to establish a large foreign army on African soil in contempt for the principle of African independence, and to bring about a general disturbance of the international equilibrium; “No constructive interests of Palestinian Arabs can be served by the small gangs commanded by (Yassir) Arafat, (Dr. George) Habash and others whose ideology consists of nothing except the pre-
Mr. Eban also declared: “By its solitude and uniqueness, Israel’s secure existence is the overriding moral imperative in this dispute…. To suggest a distribution whereby all Arabs must be sovereign everywhere and all Jews nowhere is to fall into an abyss of paradox and discrimination.” Mr. Eban also repeated a proposal for an Arab state with a Palestinian majority in Jordan. “Israel will never move its forces in any cause except its own legitimate security.” “Aerial piracy… should never be indulged, condoned or, above all, rewarded….Physical methods of prevention should be adopted without limitation or reserve.” Mr. Eban backed the United States proposal for suspension of airline services to and from any state complying with hijackers or falling to extradite or prosecute them. He called for international action to increase airport and aircraft security, adopt this December’s proposed Hague Convention, establish sanctions against nation’s tolerating hijackers and create a permanent hijacking tribunal, “Humanity and justice call upon the Soviet government to recognize the human rights of its Jewish citizens and to permit them freely to exercise those rights”.
The Israeli Foreign Minister observed that, in 22 years the Arab states and Israel have spent more than 20 thousand million dollars for military purposes. “If one tenth of that sum had been invested in a refugee solution,” he stated, “the problem would have been solved long ago in a way that would have promoted economic progress in all the countries in which the resettlement was made.” The 55-year-old Capetown born diplomat, concluding his speech, declared: “Above all, (Israel) will keep its mind and heart open to the prospect of a negotiated peace. Its people has the strength, the tenacity and the will to withstand the violent forces which assail its life and threaten its future. But its deepest aspiration is to deploy its energies in the service of a peaceful order of relations in the Middle East. The key to that future lies in a negotiation explicitly directed to the establishment of peace. And the key is now in Arab, and particularly in Egyptian, hands.
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.
