Israeli government officials let it be known unofficially today that they were unhappy over U.S. Ambassador William Scranton’s statement at the United Nations Security Council meeting last night that the U.S. regarded Jewish settlements in the administered territories as an obstacle to peace negotiations.
The government had no immediate official reaction to Scranton’s speech in which he also was critical of Israeli settlement policies in East Jerusalem. But observers here said the speech marked a clear change of attitude by the United States toward Israel and they said Israel was seeking “clarification.”
Israeli newspapers were less reticent. Maariv said Scranton’s comment that the U.S. did not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem constituted “an open conflict” between the two countries. Yediot Achronot called the speech “anti-Israel from A to Z in spite” of Scranton’s “promise to follow through in the footsteps” of his predecessor, Daniel P. Moynihan. The astonished reaction to the Scranton speech was seen as stemming in part from the statements by Moynihan as ambassador which had been considered much more pro-Israel.
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