Abie Nathan, the Israeli “lone eagle” who flew to Egypt in an effort to interest Egyptian President Nasser into talking about peace with Israel, came here today on the first leg of a trip to various countries to work up a world movement to take the issue of peace out of the hands of politicians, and put such efforts in the hands of non-political civilians.
Nathan, who had flown in his own plane from Israel to Port Said, then was given fuel by the Egyptians so he could return to Israel, was greeted enthusiastically at Rome’s international airport when he arrived this morning as a passenger on an El Al Israel Airlines jet plane. Scores of Italian and foreign journalists and radio-television reporters met him.
Nathan said he would try to see Pope Paul VI, to whom he had sent a telegram asking for an appointment, and would also visit Italian, French and British advocates of world peace. “I want to see anybody who would like to see me, ” he said. “I am convinced that civilians should care for their destiny themselves. The hands of the politicians are sometimes frozen. ” He expects to remain here until Thursday, then go on to France and to England.
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