Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Chaim Herzog, told the General Assembly Friday that the Arabs’ desire to accumulate anti-Israel resolutions “is apparently insatiable,” and warned that the “obsession” of the Assembly with Israel can “endanger the progress of the critical talks now taking place” in New York between American officials and foreign ministers of Mideast countries.
Herzog’s warning come in the wake of Thursday’s inclusion on the Assembly agenda of an item, requested by Egypt, to discuss the “illegal” Jewish settlement on the West Bank of Jordan. Noting that there are over 20 agenda items this year which deal with Israel and the Mideast conflict, Herzog stated: Last year, the General Assembly’s obsession with Israel was used in a cynical and callous attempt to cover up the brutalities and bloodshed of the Lebanese Civil War. This year, our critics appear determined to focus even more time and energy on Israel in order to divert attention from an overt Arab attack on a sovereign Black African Nation.” Herzog did not identify the country but it was assumed that he referred to Ethiopia.
Herzog also charged that the new item on the agenda “prejudges the issue (of Jewish settlements) by asserting that the Israeli measures are illegal and an obstacle to peace.” This, Herzog argued, violates the rule that “a party is innocent until proven guilty.”
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