Premier Yitzhak Rabin has revealed that Israel approached Premier Chou En-lai of the People’s Republic of China through a friendly third party in an effort to change China’s hostile attitude toward the Jewish State. But the third party, a European socialist leader, who is a friend of Israel, drew a negative response from Chou. The episode is disclosed in a special interview with Rabin published in the Israeli Journalists Year Book that will appear here shortly.
According to Rabin, the intermediary tried to explain the historic right of Israel to the land of Israel. The Chinese leader, who listened to the explanation, remarked later: If we agree in principle that a nation that was expelled off its land, or has changed its character return after one thousand or two thousand years to claim the right to re-establish its independence in the same place that it was in the past, we shall bring chaos to the international system. Chou added, imagine that this principle was good for the Indians if they were in existence today and would have returned to America.
Rabin said he told his European friend that the fact that Chou cannot find those Indians of the ancient days proved the difference between Israel and other nations that disappeared from the political arena. Rabin added in the interviews: Without seeing the right perspective of history in the establishment of Israel, it would be difficult to grasp the great historic revolution that took place here.
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.
