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Eban Placed Blame for Continued Deadlock on Egypt, He Tells Israel Cabinet

December 9, 1968
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Blame for the continuing deadlock in Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring’s Middle East peace mission was placed squarely on Egypt by Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban in his most recent talks with the United Nations envoy on Cyprus, it was learned today. Mr. Eban reported on those talks to the Cabinet. He said he had cited to Dr. Jarring Egypt’s refusal of a suggestion that its Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Riad, be present on Cyprus when Mr. Eban was there. The Israeli Foreign Minister also referred to Mr. Riad’s refusal to remain in New York last month for further contacts through Dr. Jarring at UN headquarters and Egypt’s failure to reply to a series of questions on matters of substance which Mr. Eban had submitted through the UN envoy.

Mr. Eban also reported on the latest exchange of views between Israel and the United States on the Middle East crisis. A U.S. State Department spokesman said last week that American policy remains the same as enunciated by President Johnson in his Middle East statements of June 19, 1967 and Sept. 10, 1968.

Mr. Eban and Minister Without Portfolio Menachem Beigin voiced sharply opposed views on the future of occupied Arab territories in separate speeches over the week-end. Mr. Eban, who addressed students here, said that whoever declares that Israel would give up none of the occupied territories, even within the framework of peace negotiations, was “unrealistic.” He said he believed that Israel must be a Jewish State, not a bi-national state and that efforts should be made to enlist Arab cooperation pending a peace settlement but not to integrate Arabs from the occupied territories into Israel. Mr. Beigin, who spoke in Jerusalem, demanded an end to talk about “returning” territories to King Hussein of Jordan. He said Israel could only “give” Hussein the territories not “return” them because they have already been returned to the people of Israel. He discounted the belief that concessions by Israel might bring peace.

In a related development, Mohamed Hubeishi resigned as deputy mayor of Acre, explaining that, “I resigned before I would have been ousted” for declaring that he preferred a bi-national state of Jews and Arabs to the present Jewish State. His statement generated widespread criticism, particularly because of the mixed Jewish and Arab population of Acre.

Two East Jerusalem Arab women were under arrest yesterday for alleged activities “hostile to Israel.” One of them was Zaidi El-Khatib, 40, wife of former East Jerusalem mayor, Rouhi El-Khatib, who was banished to Jordan last March 7. The other was Mrs. Maliha Husseini, 57, wife of a former property manager of an Arab company and a member of a Moslem Women’s organization.

Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Yadin will establish his official residence in a four-room apartment in what was formerly the Jewish quarter of East Jerusalem. The quarter was destroyed by the Jordanian Army in 1948 and is now being rebuilt. Mr. Allon, who heads the Ministry for Immigrant Absorption, makes his home at Kibbutz Ginossar near Lake Tiberias.

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