Herzog Says Adjournment of Security Council Debate on the Middle East Was a Defeat for the Egyptians

Chaim Herzog, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, said today that the adjournment of the Security Council’s Middle East debate last night was “a defeat” for the Egyptians who initiated the debate which opened here last Friday. The Council adjourned indefinitely last night without adopting any resolutions or making any other decisions.

Diplomatic sources here said that the Egyptians, who wanted the Council to declare its support for the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Geneva talks, agreed to a postponement of the debate without a date for reconvening when they realized that they faced an American veto and were unable to guarantee the necessary nine votes to pass a resolution in the Council. In addition to American opposition, Syria and Libya refused to sup- port the Egyptian resolution because it was “too moderate” in their view. Some observers said it was unlikely that the debate would be resumed at a later date. “The United States took a very tough position during the debate and it seems unlikely that Egypt will want to face strong American opposition again on this issue,” one observer noted.

Herzog said that Egypt’s plan at the Council “completely misfired and on the eve of Passover, Israel administered another Passover plague against the Egyptians.” Sources here also said that the Egyptians backed off in order to avoid a conflict with the United States on the eve of President Anwar Sadat’s visit next week to Washington for talks with President Carter. The United States made it clear that the Egyptian resolution was not acceptable to her. Egypt, therefore, had to agree for a postponement of the debate, avoiding an American veto that would have created a negative effect on the Carter-Sadat discussions.

Addressing the Council prior to its adjournment last night, Herzog challenged the Jordanian delegate, who said earlier that Jews were not driven out of Arab countries, to meet with the representatives of the Jewish-Arab refugees “who have now organized themselves worldwide in order to press their claims against the Arab governments.”

The Israeli envoy told the Council that Jewish refugees from Arab lands in Israel now number approximately 1,250,000. He rejected an Arab call for those Jews, made at the Council, to return. He declared that Jews who were driven out of Arab countries have no desire to return because “they know what life for a Jew in an Arab country means.”

Charging that Egypt initiated the debate in the Council because of “an apparent internal struggle at the highest level on matters of policy” Herzog said that the Council should not serve as an arena for a domestic political struggle taking place in Egypt. He said that the internal struggle in Egypt is between Sadat and his Foreign Minister, Ismail Fahmy.