The Security Council resolution criticizing Israel for its March 17 retaliation raid on Syrian gun posts in the Lake Tiberias area came under editorial fire today in leading New York dailies. The Times, in a typical editorial reaction, described the Security Council vote as “one of those actions that feed criticism of the United Nations” and as representing “something less than even-handed justice in the Syrian-Israel dispute.”
The Times editorial asserted that the Security Council had failed in its “first duty” which was “to promote the establishment and maintenance of peace.” It said the Council acted correctly in sticking to its 1956 resolution opposing retaliatory raids and in calling on both sides to comply with the armistice agreement. But, added the Times, the Council “fell short of impartiality” in failing to condemn Syria for provocations “which included artillery fire” and in failing “even to take cognizance of the basic cause of these recurrent incidents”–the lack “of an Arab-Israel peace settlement.”
The Herald-Tribune said the March 17 raid gave encouragement “to that school of opinion, both in and out of the United States, which is always promote to condemn Israel when she strikes back but which prefers to look the other way while lesser incidents that provoke reprisal mount up.”
The Herald-Tribune asserted that the United States delegation would have been in a “stronger position” in voting for the disputed Council resolution “if it had voted last December in favor of the 16-nation resolution calling on the Arabs and Israelis alike to undertake direct negotiations with a view to achieving peace treaty.” The editorial criticized the United States stand that such peace talks were not “practical” with the comment that “if no pressure is put on the parties to move toward peace, it may prove similarly impractical to reprove them for acts of war.”
The New York Post recalled the remarks made by President Kennedy in his election campaign regarding peace in the Middle East and declared that the Council resolution “hardly reflects the spirit and vision of those remarks.” The Post said that what the Council resolution” so plainly failed to say is that there can be no peace as long as the Arab leaders continue to proclaim the goal of Israel’s extermination.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
