Four thousand persons attending an Israel Independence Day celebration here yesterday heard a message from Premier Golda Meir specially taped for the occasion. She told the anniversary fete, sponsored by the American Zionist Council, that “even our friends” cannot sit down with other powers to “decide our fate for us.” Referring to the current Four Power talks on Mideast peace, Mrs. Meir said, “At this time the Government of Israel and the people of Israel are involved, not in a struggle with our friends, but in a very serious dialogue and discussion with our best friends. And we hope that eventually they will understand that the policy of the Israel Government is one of search for peace between us and our neighbors.”
Sen. Charles Goodell, New York Republican, another speaker at the gathering in the Felt Forum of Madison Square Garden, declared that the course pursued in the meetings of the U.S., Britain, France and Soviet Russia “can only be effective if they lead to Arab and Israeli sitting down together at the table and ironing out their own differences by force of argument rather than by force of arms.” Rabbi Israel Miller, chairman of the American Zionist Council, read the text of President Richard M. Nixon’s Independence Day greetings to President Zalman Shazar of Israel. Other speakers were Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, chief Israeli representative to the UN, and Dr. Emanual Neumann, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency.
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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.