Official Israel policy toward Egypt was outlined here yesterday by a Foreign Ministry spokesman on Middle Eastern affairs, when he quoted then Prime Minister David Ben Gurion’s statement to the Knesset on August 18, 1952. At that time, Mr. Ben Gurion welcomed a free Egypt and its new regime following the custer of King Farouk, expressed Israel’s goodwill, and pointed out that a wide desert separated the two countries which had no real territorial, political or economic conflicts.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that was Israel’s policy then, and it had not changed. He reiterated the statement in reply to a declaration made by Egyptian Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser to American newsmen in Cairo that there were two schools of thought current in Israel–one advocating restraint and envisaging coexistence and peace, and the other led by Mr. Ben Gurion, advocating the use of force.
The spokesman said that there was but one school of thought in Israel, as expressed in Mr. Ben Gurion’s 1952 address. If another school of thought exists, the spokesman continued, it is the Egyptian school which undermines Israel security by armed aggression, boycotts and blockades. If Egypt would enforce peace along the borders, he added, and control the elements responsible for murder, lawlessness and outrages directed against Israel settlements, it could provide the basis for co-existence and cooperation between the two peoples.
(In New Delhi, Premier Nasser was expected to make an all-out bid for the support of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Egypt’s battle against Israel, according to diplomatic sources there. The same sources indicated their belief that the bid would fail to budge Nehru, whose government generally supported the creation of the State of Israel.)
Meanwhile, the Egyptian-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission condemned Egypt last night for the mining of Israel patrol vehicles in a border incident April 1. In which one soldier was wounded. The Commission also condemned Israel for returning Egyptian fire in the same incident.
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