Israel Sees Nothing New, Threat to Peaceful Solution, in Soviet Mid-east Plan

Israel’s first reaction to a new Soviet peace plan for the Middle East, reportedly presented to the United States State Department for study two weeks ago, was that it contains nothing new and that the proposals would perpetuate the conflict and not solve the problem. This reaction was expressed by Ambassador Gideon Rafael, director-general of the Foreign Ministry, in a television interview today and by other Foreign Ministry officials in later appraisals. According to Mr. Rafael, the reported Soviet compromise plan “is more important for what has been left out than for what it contains.” He said it called for “normalization” rather than for peace and that “Israel has learned of late what ‘normalization’ means in Soviet terminology. Czechoslovakia is an example of it.” He found the plan reminiscent of the “normalization” imposed by the Big Powers in 1957, after the Sinai campaign.

The Soviet proposals, as reported by the New York Times today, called for: Israeli withdrawal to the pre-June, 1967 boundaries; a strong United Nations presence in the area evacuated; a declaration of non-belligerence by the Arab states and a four-power guarantee of peace in the region by the U.S., the Soviet Union, Britain and France. According to the Times, the Soviet proposal left to subsequent negotiation the questions of Israel’s rights to free passage through the Suez Canal, the status of the Arab refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

Foreign Ministry officials commented that since there is nothing new in the reported proposals, they may be genuine. They pointed out that all of the elements have been mentioned before by Soviet or Arab spokesmen. They said that the plan purports to see the United Nations Security Council resolution of Nov. 22. 1967 implemented and the same desire had generated various plans in the past, all of them invariably starting with Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories as a first step.