Israel Says It Acted Correctly in Gunboat Affair; Rejects Criticism

The Government of Israel does not consider as justified any French action involving criticism of Israel or its representatives in the affair of the five gunboats that have arrived in Israel from Cherbourg, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said today. The Israeli Cabinet will have to approve the official Israeli reply to the French demand for the recall of Admiral Mordechai Limon, head of the Israeli arms purchasing mission in Europe. The statement came in response to questions.

(It was disclosed in Paris that Admiral Limon would leave for Israel next Friday. The admiral was said to have been deluged at his home and office with messages from French Army officers and civilians expressing sympathy and solidarity.)

Foreign Minister Abba Eban has been studying a report on the talk between French Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann and Israel’s Paris envoy, Walter Eytan, at which Israel was asked to recall the chief of the Israel purchasing mission in Europe. It was indicated that a detailed reply from the Israel Government would be transmitted to France within a few days.

The spokesman also said that Israel’s view on the boat incident had been conveyed by Mr. Eban to French Ambassador Francis Hure earlier in the week. The Foreign Minister told the envoy that no Israeli party whatever had been involved in any illegal act in connection with the boats’ transit. The spokesman said that the “unjustified” French arms embargo was the problem and not any incidents occurring as a result of the embargo’s implementation.

(The first Soviet comment on the gunboat incident was an editorial in Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party paper, denouncing Israel’s “theft of five gunboats from France.” The paper militantly restated the Kremlin’s intention to “liquidate the consequences of Israeli aggression in the Middle East.”)