Foreign Minister Yigal Allon disclosed last night that Israel had been about to lodge a sharp protest in Washington over Undersecretary of State Joseph J. Sisco’s statement indicating a U.S. tilt toward the PLO. But Sisco’s second statement amending his first statement “saved me the trouble of writing a reaction,” Allon told delegates at the plenary session of the triennial international convention of B’nai B’rith.
Allon was referring to Sisco’s remarks, taped in an interview with the United States Information Agency (USIA) Monday for overseas distribution that “We regard the PLO as the overall umbrella organization of the Palestinians.” Sisco said on the NBC-TV “Today” show yesterday, however, that his USIA remarks were reflective not of the American but of the Arab position on the PLO and that the U.S. position “remains unchanged.” Allon’s statement was the first official comment by an Israeli leader on the Sisco matter and indicated that Israel was satisfied with the Undersecretary’s explanation.
(In Washington last night, Mordechai Shalev, Minister at the Israeli Embassy, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency “We were satisfied with Mr. Sisco’s statement today (on the “Today” show). It rectified the misunderstanding that arose out of his USIA interview on Monday.”
The USIA interview nevertheless raised a furor here, coming on the heels of PLO chief Yasir Ara fat’s inflammatory speech to the UN General Assembly and after the terrorist attack on civilians in Beisan, although Sisco’s remarks clearly were taped before that latest outrage. Israelis, however, are extremely sensitive to all nuances of U.S. policy in face of their growing political isolation and the circulation in the UN this week of a pro-Palestine resolution that calls, in effect, for the dismemberment of Israel.
DETENTE MUST INCLUDE MIDEAST
In his address to the B’nai B’rith convention, Allon cautioned that U.S.-Soviet detente cannot be operative in one part of the world and not in another. Referring to the meeting of President Ford and Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev in Vladivostock this Saturday he said that unless detente applies not only to America and Russia, or East and West Europe, but to the Middle East as well, it will mislead the entire free world.
“The Jewish nation and Israel are for detente,” he said, “for better understanding between the powers since we, as a nation scattered all over the world, are the first victims of every international conflict. We also know the meaning of permanent tension. But we are for a sincere and true detente that will cover the whole world or it will not exist. A partial detente will mislead the free world,” Allon said.
(See P. 4 for analysis of detente and the Mideast.)
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.
