Eshkol, Golda Meir Laud Security Council Majority; Regret Soviet Veto

Prime Minister Levi Eskil and Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, expressed satisfaction today in separate statements over the vote in the Security Council yesterday on the United States-British resolution on the Syrian murder of two Israeli farmhands last August 19. Both also expressed regret that the Soviet Union had blocked passage of the resolution through a veto.

The Prime Minister and Mrs. Meir also both noted with satisfaction the eight votes cast for the resolution, which, they said, proved that the majority of Security Council members deployed the murders of the Almagor settlement members.

Mrs. Meir viewed the eight votes as indicating the desire of those countries to exercise the authority of the Security Council to maintain peace on Israel’s northern border. She said the report of Gen. Odd Bull, chief of staff of the United Nations Trues Supervision Organization, presented by UN Secretary-general U Thant, the utterances of Council

members, and the draft resolution which received an overwhelming majority of votes, “have fixed Syrian responsibility for the murders in Israeli territory at Almagor.”

She stated that the Security Council discussion and vote “also made it clear” that the Syrian complaint that Israel massed armor in the area, “was without foundation, “

“Israel deeply regrets that the Soviet Union, which recently gave its support to a step which opens horizons of hope to mankind, ” the signing of the limited nuclear test ban pact, “did not find it necessary at one and the same time to give its support and make its contribution to the relaxation of tension in our region as well, ” she declared, adding that a “technical veto cannot detract from the moral and political significance of the stand formulated in the Security Council. “

SEES ‘CLEAR CONDEMNATION’; ARMY HEAD WARNS ARAB AGGRESSORS

Che declared also that the Security Council stand represented “a clear condemnation of the act of murder of the two Israelis and of the Syrian Government which bears responsibility for it and for the chain of incidents which preceded its including the kidnaping of three Israelis on Israeli territory and their continued detention in Syria. ” This was a reference to the abduction by Syrians of six persons in an excursion boat on Lake Tiberias last July. The Syrians released the three Belgian passengers, but not the three Israelis.

Mrs.Meir said that, in response to the appeal of the Security Council president, Israel was ready for an immediate exchange of all prisoners, including the three kidnaped Israelis, and that Israel welcomed the Council president’s appeal for maintenance of the cease-fire arranged in the Almagor area by UN observers. She added that Israel hoped that “this appeal and the security Council discussion will have a teal effect on Syria’s conduct.

Chief of Staff Zvi Tsur said last night, at the close of armored brigade exercises, that he hoped quiet would come to Israel’s northern border “so that we will not be forced to prove to our neighbors that the Israel Army will not forever withhold its fire. ” He added that it was the duty of Israel’s defense forces to guarantee the security of citizens living along the borders “by all available means, “

The right-wing Herut party announced meanwhile that it planned to demand that the Parliament’s Security and Foreign Affairs Committee meet to condemn the Soviet veto. The committee is scheduled to meet next Wednesday. Another proposal planned by Herut would be a call for censure other Government for its policy of “withholding action” against unprovoked attacks by Syria and Jordan. The party argued that the killing of an Israeli workman yesterday in the Jerusalem zone by Jordanians was “just the result of such a hands-folded policy” of the Government.