Whoever fired the first shot in last June’s Six-Day War “is completely irrelevant to the question of aggression” because that conflict was just one battle in a war that has been going on for 19 years, the Earl of Balfour declared here last night at the annual Scopus Award Dinner of the American Friends of the Hebrew University. The 1967 award was presented to Abraham F. Wechsler, New York businessman and philanthropist, at the affair which also marked the 50th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Lord Balfour, nephew of the former British Foreign Minister who was author of the Declaration, said that since the Arab states surrounding Israel “perversely insist that they are in a permanent state of war with her, there is no possible room for doubt as to who is the aggressor.”
A special award was presented to Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem, who brought his city’s greetings to the affair. Messages of congratulations to Mr. Wechsler were received from President Johnson, Prime Minister Eshkol and other notables.
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