Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir may seek United States financial assistance to meet increased military needs when she meets this week with President Richard M. Nixon. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban indicated today. He appeared on the nationally televised CBS program “Face the Nation.” Mr. Eban pointed out that Israel was the only free world country that carried its military burden alone. He was “certain” that Mr. Nixon would want to know about Israel’s overall problems including the economic situation. Citing Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko’s rejection last week of Mr. Nixon’s Mideast arms limitation proposal. Mr. Eban made clear that Mrs. Meir would seek additional weapons to balance the Russian weapons flow to the Arabs.
Mr. Eban voiced skepticism about the latest pronouncements by the Big Four on a Mideast settlement. He urged the powers not to “globalize” the conflict but to call upon the parties immediately concerned to negotiate a direct settlement. Mr. Eban declined to state Israel’s present concept of permanent new boundaries in advance of negotiations. There would be no “conditions” established in advance of such negotiations, he said, but he indicated that peace boundaries would not be the same as the previous armistice lines. He suggested that Israel would not return to a divided Jerusalem, surrender the Golan Heights of Syria or Sharm el-Sheikh, or accept boundaries that threatened coastal cities.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.