Moscow’s Unfriendly Attitude Toward Israel Scored by Golda Meir

Israel has done nothing to warrant the unfriendly attitude displayed by the Soviet Union lately, Mrs. Golda Meir, Foreign Minister of Israel, declared today at a luncheon in her honor tendered by the Foreign Press Association.

Asked by the correspondent of Tass, the official Soviet news agency, whether Israel desired to improve her relations with the USSR, Mrs. Meir said that Israel was willing to listen and receive advice on how to improve relations with Moscow. “We are not clever enough to think up more steps than we have already taken,” she said, and added that Israel was willing to repeat everything she had already done in this matter.

Mrs. Meir accented Israel’s policy of seeking friendship with all countries irrespective of their internal regimes, Israel sees no reason for the Soviet Union’s unfriendly attitude, she said. “We regret it and hope it may change in the future.”

Asked whether Israel’s adherence to the Eisenhower Doctrine had strengthened peace in the Middle East, Mrs. Meir answered: “I am afraid I cannot tell you. We still hope it will.” The Foreign Minister asserted that it was “only natural” that Israel have closer relations with countries which allow Jewish cultural, national and religious life within their borders, as well as those which permit their Jewish nationals to emigrate or visit Israel.

To a query by the correspondent of Radio Warsaw about Israel’s likely position in the event the USSR proposed an arms embargo for the Middle East, Mrs. Meir replied that the idea would be fine if made at the right time. However, she emphasized, if such a proposal were made after large arms deliveries to Egypt and now Syria, “we could not accept it as a bonafide proposal,” If made under conditions which made Israel feel safe from Arab attack, she indicated, such a proposal would receive Israel’s favor.

SAYS ISRAEL EXTREMELY ANXIOUS ABOUT FLOW OF SOVIET ARMS TO SYRIA

Israel feels extreme anxiety about the stream of Soviet arms to Syria not only because the receiver has been preaching the destruction of Israel for the past ten years, but also because the supplier is one of the great powers which, by radio and press, has displayed hostility toward Israel, Mrs. Meir said. Asked whether Israel would like to receive arms from the United States, she replied: “Any objective observer would understand that Israel cannot remain weak in the face of the rapidly growing strength of her neighbors.”

Asked why Israel’s arms demands today were not voiced with the same insistence as two years ago, at the time of the Czech-Egyptian arms deal, the Foreign Minister said: “Maybe because we learned in 1955 that nations did not queue up to send us weapons.” She noted that Israel had strengthened herself in the last two years–both as a result of arms received from friendly nations and by arms “acquired” during the Sinai campaign.

The Israeli stateswoman told the newsmen that Israel holds by its position that the Arab refugees should be resettled in the “present host countries”–the Arab states in which they are now living–where there are no difficulties such as differing languages, religion or way of life. She indicated that Israel would have the backing on this matter of many nations which understand that the refugee question could have been solved had not Arab leaders been using the refugees as a political weapon for their own aims.

The greatest needs of the Middle East, she reiterated, are freedom from poverty and disease. She suggested that competition among the great powers in the Middle East concentrate on supplying tractors and irrigation equipment rather than munitions.