Cuba’s Prime Minister Fidel Castro regards the Israelis as a “wise people,” according to Sen. George S. McGovern (D.S.D. ). The remark is included in a passage in McGovern’s report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his visit to Cuba May 5-8. The report became available today.
Reporting on international concerns they had discussed in the Prime Minister’s office in Havana May 7, McGovern reported the conversation on the Middle East as follows:
“On the Middle East,” McGovern wrote, “I described the outlines of a possible settlement which I had proposed after a trip to that area earlier this year–the full recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel’s return to its 1967 borders with practical modifications and recognition of Palestinian self-determination. Castro felt that such a formula would bring peace and that the Israelis–who are ‘wise people’ –might be ready to accept it. He (Castro) added; ‘The Arabs dislike the step-by-step approach–the so-called Kissinger formula. It tends to divide them.'”
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