Eshkol Scorns Arab ‘pretensions of Moderation’; Supports Eban Fully

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, scorning Arab ‘pretensions’ of moderation, reiterated in the Knesset (Parliament) today that Israel will never, under any circumstances, return to the borders of June 4,1967, the day before the Six-Day War erupted. Mr. Eshkol’s address was full confirmation of the statement of Israel’s policy delivered by Foreign Minister Abba Eban today before the United Nations Security Council.

The Prime Minister disclosed that, in the Sinai campaign of 1956 and in the Six-Day War last June, Israel captured Arab weapons and armaments valued at from $1 billion to $1.2 billion. Now, however, Soviet Russia is replenishing the Arab arsenal, he said, and is again “besmirching Israel’s name with allegations that we are planning new aggression, the same false allegations that prompted Nasser to begin his aggression last June, which plunged the whole region into war, with the loss of thousands of lives.”

Mr. Eshkol said he gave little credulence to “Arab pretensions of moderation,” which, he asserted, are designed to make Israel give up her strategic advantage on the supposition that the Arabs will acquiesce to international rulings and cease their belligerence. “This can only deceive the innocent or those who pretend to be innocent,” he declared. He recalled that, at the Arab summit conference at Khartoum, two months ago, Nasser had stated that Egypt must bring her army back to full strength at the earliest possible moment in order to attack Israel. He quoted King Hussein of Jordan at the same conference to the effect that, once Israel withdraws from occupied territory, the Arabs will be able to resume their prewar methods of operation. (See P.2 for Knesset vote.)