Just minutes after he presented his credentials to Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, Israel’s new Ambassador to the United Nations, Haim Herzog, came down to his first meeting with the UN press corps where he strongly emphasized “very serious possible consequences” if Israel is expelled or suspended from the General Assembly.
Herzog said that he trusts that the present negotiations to bring about a new interim agreement in Sinai, “will not be adversely affected by external intervention, such as any attempt to prejudice Israel’s rights in the United Nations.” He added, “waging political warfare is surely irreconcilable with maintaining a process of negotiations toward an ultimate peace.”
Herzog repeated Foreign Minister Yigal Allon’s warning that if Israel is expelled or suspended Israel will suspend all its relations with UN agencies in the Middle East including UN peace-keeping forces in Sinai and the Golan Heights. He indicated that a move to expel Israel will prejudice any concluded second-stage interim agreement between Israel and Egypt.
Herzog, who conferred with Waldheim for 45 minutes, called the meeting a “pleasant dialogue.” In which he and Waldheim reviewed the situation in the Mideast and also discussed the move to suspend Israel.
HERZOG’S OPENING STATEMENT
In his opening statement, Herzog said: “In assuming my post I am conscious of the fact that the United Nations came into being following a world war which decimated the population of many countries and the Holocaust in which the Jewish people were singled out for destruction, and that this organization was conceived of a desire to create a better society for all mankind, predicated upon the lofty principles of the brotherhood of man.
“I am furthermore conscious of the fact that I have come here to represent a people which have retained over an unbroken period of 4000 years its national identity, its cultural heritage and language, its unique ties to its country, the land of Zion and Jerusalem, and its religious faith. I am proud to represent a nation whose contribution to the advance of mankind has been so manifold and universal, a nations whose Bible serves not only as the charter of nationhood and its code of life, but also as the moral basis of a broad segment of mankind including the great faiths of Christianity and Islam.”
Herzog said the expected agreement between Israel and Egypt “will be a long, difficult and tedious process.” He added that this process must ultimately lead to direct negotiations in order to further the move towards peace. The new Israeli Ambassador disclosed that the Israeli delegation to this year’s General Assembly will include an Israeli Druze, Zeydan Atashi, and a woman judge, Hadassah Ben-Itto. Later in the day at the Israel Mission to the UN Herzog held a get-acquainted meeting with members of the Israeli staff.
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.
