Israel, N.Y. Times, London Guardian Critical of UN Resolution Condemning Israel

Israel officially advised British Ambassador John Barnes today of its “disappointment” over Britain’s vote for Tuesday’s Security Council resolution censuring Israel for its May 12-13 incursion against guerrilla bases in Lebanon. The government’s attitude was conveyed to Mr. Barnes by Gideon Rafael, director general of the Foreign Ministry, who met with him on various matters today. Israeli officials said the meeting had been arranged prior to the Security Council vote and was mainly concerned with topical questions of mutual interest. (The New York Times in an editorial today described the latest Security Council resolution condemning Israel as another In a ‘series of “one-sided propaganda gestures (that) are not only futile but…undermine the credibility, and therefore the utility, of the world organization as an instrument for peace in the Middle East or anywhere.” The Times noted that the resolution failed to refer to “the guerrilla blows that provoked the Israeli reaction,” and observed the “more constructive path” would have been approval of the Finnish proposal for resumption of the Jarring peace mission. That motion never reached a vote.)

(In London, the Daily Telegraph, agreeing editorially today with United States UN Ambassador Charles W. Yost that the resolution was “unbalanced,” criticized British Ambassador Lord Caradon for “woolly” thinking in voting for it. “Israel’s desperate plight demands a more virile argument,” it said. The editorial added that as a result of Soviet intervention in the Middle East the Big Four talks “make less sense than ever.” It insisted that “the more Russia builds up Egypt’s strength the more are the Israelis driven to defensive counter-action, and the less, as a result, can they contemplate giving up an inch of Sinai, which alone gives them the necessary room for aerial deployment… The Arabs can take innumerable defeats and survive, but every Israeli knows that his country can only lose once.”)