Israeli leaders are quietly organizing plans to counter a possible Egyptian diplomatic offensive to isolate Israel at the United Nations General Assembly which opens next month. Gideon Rafael, the director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry left Friday for a tour of Scandinavian countries to which he was officially invited. He was expected to use his visit for high level contacts for the Assembly session. The Foreign Ministry also was reported to be planning to send delegations, official and unofficial, to other countries. The background of the planning is the fact that the Arab-Soviet group at the UN has nearly 70 votes at the Assembly if the Arabs decide to present any anti-Israel resolutions. Rafael is due next week in Stockholm, Sweden, and Reykjavik, Iceland where he will meet the Foreign Ministers of those countries, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported from Stockholm. An Egyptian government official, Hezzet Usmail, will visit Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway at the end of this month.
In a related development, it was reported here that Jordan may raise at the Security Council its complaint that Israel is “Judaizing” East Jerusalem. Other Arab countries indicated little enthusiasm for the idea when Jordan announced that intention a month ago and it was assumed here that Jordan had abandoned the idea. But in recent days Jordanian delegates have been sounding out other delegations at the UN as to their views on the issue. It was also reported that there may be an effort for creation of a UN commission on behalf of the Security Council to look into the Jordanian charges. It was expected that if this is done. Israel will boycott such a commission as it has the commission named by Secretary General U Thant to report on Israel’s treatment of the Arab population in the occupied areas. That commission, named over Israel’s objections, is composed of Ceylon, Somalia and Yugoslavia, all openly anti-Israeli. Somalia and Yugoslavia have no diplomatic ties with Israel.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
