Javits, Goldberg Warn Against Soviet, French Efforts to Devise Imposed Peace

Sen. Jacob K. Javits and Arthur J. Goldberg declared today that the United States must not be a party to anticipated efforts by the Soviet Union and France to devise an imposed solution to the Arab-Israel conflict at the forthcoming Big Four talks on the Mideast. Sen. Javits, New York Republican and a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, warned President Nixon not to be “trapped” into an attempt to write a peace treaty between the Arabs and Israelis. Arthur J. Goldberg, former United Nations Ambassador, said the Four Power talks were “bound to fail” if they sought to impose a settlement. Both leaders addressed the two-day National Leadership Conference for Peace in the Middle East convened here by the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations.

According to Sen. Javits, “The U.S. should serve notice on the USSR “that we will not be drawn into any other temporary arrangements in the Middle East but would rather sweat it out until there is an actual peace settlement.” He said such a settlement can be hammered out only by the parties to the conflict. “A Four Power conference,” he continued,” cannot and must not be an alternative to Arab-Israel negotiations for peace–nor should it be an excuse for not holding them.”

Mr. Goldberg, a former U.S. Supreme Court Justice and now American Jewish Committee president, said some good may come out of the talks between the U.S., Britain, France and Russia if their purpose is “to promote a dialogue and an agreed settlement between the parties.” He warned, however, that “if on the other hand the Four Powers either singly or in combination seek to impose a settlement on the parties, then the efforts of the Four Powers are bound to fail and much mischief may result.” Mr. Goldberg said, “the inferences that Israel is approaching peacemaking with undue rigidity is unjustified.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban told the Conference’s opening session yesterday that Israel would never be bound by a Four Power decision to impose peace. “National suicide,” he said, “is not an international obligation.” Secretary of State William P. Rogers today sent a telegram to Rabbi Herschel Schacter, Presidents Conference chairman, which said, “Like you my colleagues and I are deeply concerned about the situation which continues to prevail in the Middle East. Let me assure you that we are exploring every possible means of helping Ambassador (Gunnar V.) Jarring in his task of promoting agreement of the terms of the just and lasting peace envisaged by the Security Council’s Nov. 22, 1967 resolution. We know the deep interest of your member organizations in the search for Middle East peace and are always glad to receive your counsel.”