Israel’s Foreign Minister Golda Meir today called in U.S. Ambassador Walworth Barbour for what was understood to be a discussion on the State Department’s criticism of Israel’s retaliatory raids into Jordan in reprisal for recent raids by terrorists from Jordan into Israeli territory that had caused damage to property and injuries to seven Israelis.
A State Department spokesman said in Washington this weekend–after a meeting between Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Israel Ambassador Avraham Harman–that the United States Government opposes any use of force in the Israel-Arab dispute. “There is an established United Nations machinery for dealing with disputes along the Arab-Israel border.” the State Department official declared. “We therefore deplore the resort to force by any party. We believe that violations of the armistice or alleged provocations should be dealt with by the UN organs.”
(It is believed that Ambassador Harman in his meeting with Secretary Rusk drew the latter’s attention to the long list of acts of sabotage and armed incursions perpetrated by trained marauders against civilian targets inside Israel and noted that these marauders came from and returned to Jordan after committing their acts of violence.)
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