David Rockefeller, chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, said here today that he had found greater desire for peace and more willingness to come up with constructive and flexible proposals than ever before in Cairo, Beirut and Amman. He recalled that he had been to Cairo three times in the past seven years and had held discussions with the late President Nasser. Rockefeller said there was “person for modest hope” in the Arabs’ new interest in peace. He said he was also encouraged by the greatly weakened position of the extremist fedayeen and in the increasingly moderate stand adopted by even the radical Arab governments. Rockefeller thought Israel should “seize the opportunity” offered by the new trend in the Arab world. A just peace. said Rockefeller, would give proper recognition to the sovereign rights of all the states in the area.
Asked about Arab feelings towards the United States, Rockefeller said they were largely hostile due to what they considered to be overwhelming American support for Israel at the expense of the Arabs. For this reason there was no chance for resumption of diplomatic relations between Cairo and Washington until a settlement had been reached, he said. Rockefeller took umbrage at the repeated insinuations by newsmen that his interest in the Middle East was motivated by oil and finance. He agreed that the region’s enormous oil resources were a factor that “cannot be overlooked” although it was of far greater importance to western Europe and Japan than to the U.S. But any possible question of oil property expropriation, he said, was totally eclipsed by the much more profound question of peace.
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.
