Herut Reiterates Offer to Liberals for Joint Bloc; Liberals Reject

Menachem Beigin, member of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and leader of the right-wing Herut party, today called on leaders of Israel’s Liberal party to reconsider their opposition to Herut’s proposal first put forward two years ago for the establishment of a Joint Knesset bloc by the two parties in preparation for a complete merger of their lists in future Knesset elections.

Mr. Beigin reasserted the Herut proposal at his party’s national convention which opened at the Mann Auditorium here last night with 600 delegates. “I am empowered to declare that our proposal still stands in spite of the Liberals’ negative reply and should there be readiness on the part of the Liberals, Herut is prepared to sit immediately to negotiate details of the united bloc plan, ” Mr. Beigin told the delegates in his opening address.

Liberal party leaders immediately rejected Mr. Beigin’s renewed proposal for a unified Knesset bloc, declaring that experience had proven that, in matters of common interest, there is natural cooperation between the two factions, “but on questions on which we are divided, difference between the two factions is very distinct.”

In his address, Mr. Beigin also criticized Israel’s system of military government in Arab border areas, claiming that it was unnecessary since, he said, it did not prevent infiltration or the movement of Arabs to urban centers. “Herut gives its hand to whoever will bring about abolition of military government and substitute for it adequate measures to ensure security,” he said.

The Herut leader warned the Arab states that, in spite of internal differences, Israel will stand as one man against any attempt by Egypt or any other Arab state to attack it.