President Charles de Gaulle’s pro-Arab policy received a strong rebuke yesterday when 250 leading French personalities attended a dinner in honor of Gen. Pierre Koenig, World War II resistance leader and head of the France-Israel Friendship Association. The occasion was Gen. Koenig’s 70th birthday. But the turn-out, which included Alain Poher, president of the French Senate, the president of France’s Economic and Social Council, members of the French Academy, the Senate, Chamber of Deputies and high ranking military officers, was seen as an expression of solidarity with Israel as much as a tribute to a war hero.
Gen. Koenig called for a mass meeting Sunday at the monument to unknown Jewish martyrs in Paris to protest the public hangings of the 14 Iraqis. Gen. Koenig, a former Defense Minister, outlined a program for Mideast peace which, he said, could be accepted by all sides and the Big Powers. His proposal called for recognition of Israel’s existence by the Arabs; recognition of secure, guaranteed frontiers; and a just settlement of the Palestine refugee problem.
The Koenig event was only one of a series of outpourings of solidarity with Israel since the Baghdad hangings were announced. The executions were condemned by virtually the entire French press and today the Communist Party organ Humanite made it unanimous. The paper warned that the hangings did not advance the Arab cause and urged Iraq’s leaders to “show more wisdom in the future by abstaining from acts that can only serve the enemies of the Arab people.” It was the Communist newspaper’s first criticism of any Arab government.
The wave of revulsion over the Iraqi hangings, following widespread criticism of President de Gaulle’s embargo on military equipment and spare parts to Israel, appeared today to be having an effect on the Government. Observers noted a “more discreet” attitude concerning France’s relations not only with Iraq but with Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
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