Eban: Israel Ready to Use Security Council As Forum on Jerusalem

Foreign Minister Abba Eban said in a television interview last night that Israel was ready to use the Security Council as a forum for making her stand on Jerusalem known to the world. The Foreign Minister rejected a proposal by Yitzhak Rafael of the National Religious Party that Israel boycott Security Council sessions on Jerusalem. He said that such a course would exaggerate the importance of the UN as a body able to impose decisions but underrate its importance as a loudspeaker to the world. “Israel intends to make the fullest possible use of this means to make her stand known,” Eban said. He suggested that the Security Council look into the situation in Belfast, Northern Ireland, instead of Jerusalem “where tranquility and peaceful relations have reigned for months and years now.” Eban warned that hostilities may break out in the Middle East if the Arabs were encouraged by continued U.S. failure to supply Israel with Phantom jets and imagined that the military balance had shifted in their favor. He commented on U.S. Secretary of State Rogers’ remark at a press conference in Washington on Friday that an effort would be made to reach an agreement on reopening the Suez Canal by the end of this year. Eban observed that four months is not too short or too long a time and does not suggest that the U.S. intends to exert pressure on Israel. Israeli officials did not comment directly on Rogers’ press conference remark that what Israel has done so far “is not viable insofar as an agreement is concerned.” But Foreign Ministry sources recalled that Rogers had stated, before his visit to Israel last May, that proposals for an interim settlement submitted by Israel were a basis for negotiations.