Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, predicted last night that “In the long run, Egypt–with the good offices of the United States–will make concessions and the (Suez) canal will be reopened.” Addressing the 57th annual national convention of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Rabin asserted that “Israel is making many concessions by allowing Egypt to reopen the Suez Canal, run it and receive the enormous revenues that it can earn from it, even though a peace has not been attained.” Israel, he went on, “is even willing to withdraw from the East Bank of the canal, which is the best defense between Cairo and Tel Aviv.” But, he declared. “Israel has been asked to make even more concessions and withdraw from the Sinai, while the Russian Navy would be able to go through the canal into the Red Sea.” In exchange for this, “Egypt will only offer a cease-fire for six months,” he noted, asking: “How can Israeli leaders ask their people to support such an arrangement?” Rabin added, however, that “if Israel continues to maintain its strength with the help of the United States, and if the United States maintains its strong posture toward the Soviet Union, there can be a change toward peace, and perhaps a whole peace in 10 or 15 years.”
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.
