The Israel Consulate General reported today that it had received many telephone calls from persons expressing surprise that Foreign Minister Abba Eban was being attacked in the Israeli press for remarks attributed to him on Nazi war criminals, made on the David Frost television show here on Monday. According to the Consulate, the callers, who said they watched the TV show, suggested that Eban’s remarks must have been “distorted” in transmission to Israel because there was nothing in them offensive to Jewish fee lings on the subject.
Eban was reported in Israel to have said that he was uninterested in the capture of wanted Nazi war criminals after the Eichmann trial because there could be no expiation for the holocaust through their apprehension and punishment. The Consulate here issued statements in defense of Eban by two American Jews and an Israeli. They were Jacob Stein, national president of the United Synagogue of America; Marie Syrkin, author and educator and Dov Zakin, a Mapam Knesset member who is a member of the Israeli Parliamentary delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.
Stein said of Eban’s remarks on the Frost show. “His moving and thoughtful reply to the question of pursuit of individual Nazis reflects the deep human understanding of the full dimension of the holocaust. It is most disturbing that distortions of his statement reportedly are being used against him by the Israeli press.” Miss Syrkin said of Nazi war criminals. “I would like every damn one of them caught and punished.” adding that it was a “total distortion” of Eban’s remarks to say he did not hold the same view. Zakin said “Like many others
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