Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Chaim Herzog, declared last night that “whomsoever advocates a return to the 1967 lines (between Israel and her neighbors), however well meaning he may be, is enunciating a formula for a renewed war in the Middle East.”
Addressing a dinner sponsored by the American Board of Overseers of Bar Ilan University at the Hilton Hotel, celebrating the election of Dr. Emanuel Rackman as the university’s president, Herzog said that at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict “lies the Arab refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish nation to self-determination and national sovereignty.”
The Israeli envoy, who received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree during last night’s dinner, told the more than 700 guests that “there is no alternative to direct fact to face negotiations for peace in the Mideast.
“I emphasize direct face to face negotiations because they presuppose solving the main problem a recognition of Israel’s rightful place in the Middle East. The sinister significance of the Arab leaders’ refusal to negotiate with us, or of their Ambassadors’ refusal to talk to my colleagues and myself is that they in effect deny our right to exist,” Herzog said.
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