The success of the direct talks in Moscow between the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, on the banning of atomic tests in the air and under water, was cited here today by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol as best proof for the need of direct Arab-Israel negotiations to achieve Arab-Israel peace.
Speaking at a press conference here, the Israeli Prime Minister said the successful results of the Moscow talks encourage Israel to continue to ask for direct negotiations with the Arabs. Direct talks, he stressed, bear the best results. “I do not know of a better solution to the Arab-Israel problem than direct negotiations,” he declared. The Big Power treaty initialed in Moscow last week, he said, should be regarded as a gateway to more understanding between opposing blocks, but it is still to be seen if it has any bearing on the situation in the Middle East.
Regarding Israel’s relations with the Soviet Union, Mr. Eshkol said Israel had tried on a number of occasions to achieve an improvement here, but that Israel found no listening ears. Similarly, he said Israel had also revealed its good will toward Communist China, but “we wanted and still expect a more positive reaction.”
ISRAEL PREPARING TO ANSWER NASSER’S THREATS, ESHKOL SAYS
With regard to the threat voiced by Egypt’s President Nasser last week at the military parade in Cairo, in which he emphasized that he is preparing “to free Palestine of Zionists,” Mr. Eshkol said that Israel’s reply to this threat will be military preparations.
“The best reply to preparations is preparations,” he stated. “I am often blamed for speaking too much of peace. Yet this does not come instead of alertness and preparedness. There will be no easy going about this.”
Regarding atomic research in Israel, Mr. Eshkol said the atomic reactor in Dimona is progressing according to plan, though there are the normal delays of engineering and construction adjustments. He said he does not contemplate any visit or meeting with heads of states outside Israel in the next few months, and that the Foreign Minister, Mrs. Golda Meir, would head Israel’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, scheduled to convene in September.
The Prime Minister said he favors the introduction to Israel of educational television and, in due course, might consider the establishment of a general television network for the country. As to proposals to bring the remains of the late Zionist Revisionist leader, Zeev Jabotinsky, to Israel for reburial, Mr. Eshkol said he does not consider dealing with this question in the near future. Mr. Jabotinsky had requested in his will, prior to his death in 1940, that the Jewish State, which he foresaw, bring his remains to the State for reburial.
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