Premier Yitzhak Rabin reported to the Cabinet today the findings of a special two-man scientific committee he appointed last month to study the implications for Israel of President Nixon’s offer of a nuclear reactor and American atomic know-how to Egypt. Nixon made a similar offer to Israel. The findings will not be made public.
Rabin will make a statement to the Knesset Wednesday outlining the report of the committee investigating the May 15 Maalot tragedy, it was announced after today’s Cabinet meeting. The findings will be published except for portions involving national security or those that might cause further grief to the families of the 25 high school students murdered by Arab terrorists in the Maalot schoolhouse.
Rabin received statements last Friday from former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur clarifying their roles in the Maalot episode. The statements were not made public. Dayan, however, is believed to have refuted charges that he had passed inaccurate information to the Cabinet from the scene of the tragedy at Maalot.
NOTHING NEW IN U.S.-USSR COMMUNIQUE
Foreign Minister Yigal Allon told the Cabinet today that the government did not intend to press Washington for any clarification of the Nixon-Brezhnev joint communique following the Moscow summit meeting last week which referred to the “legitimate interests” of the Palestinian people. Allon said that Israel saw nothing in the communique that was new or surprising.
He said the term “legitimate interests” has often been used in the past by the Americans and certainly by the Russians, in connection with the Palestinians and that “interests” was different in tone than “rights.” This does not mean that Israel was pleased with every word in the communique, but there were no surprises in it, Allon said.
Tourism Minister Moshe Kol reported on his recent meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. He described it as “warm and sympathetic” and said that they had talked only about matters relating to pilgrimages and tourism between Jerusalem and Rome. It was not known whether the Cabinet discussed U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s meeting with the Pope.
UNDOF OFFICERS HAD BEEN WARNED
Defense Minister Shimon Peres told the Cabinet that four Austrian officers killed by a mine on the Syrian front a weak ago while serving with the United Nations Disengagement Observers Force (UNDOF) had been clearly warned by Israel not to enter a danger zone in the Mt. Hermon region because of possible mines. Peres was responding to reports from Vienna that Austrian authorities were not satisfied with the Israeli explanations and had demanded further investigation by UNDOF.
It was announced today that the Cabinet would try to hold two regular meetings each week, reserving the Sunday meeting for current affairs that need immediate decisions and the second meeting, probably on Fridays, for long term subjects to be dealt with in depth.
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