Mrs. Meir: Israel Heading Toward Peace Talks with Sincere Desire to Reach Accord

Premier Golda Meir said last night that Israel was “heading towards so-called peace negotiations with the sincere desire and hope of reaching peace agreements.” but that her nation was “determined to defend every single right exactly as all powerful nations have the right to defend their security.” She told the 500 delegates to the Israel Bond Organization conference that Israel wanted “real peace and not make-believe settlements.” so that “future generations will not have to go to war again and again.” That, she said was her country’s “sacred duty to our young people and the children of future generations.” But she cautioned “our friends in the world” that “if they want the negotiations to be fruitful they must do everything so that Israel can sit at the negotiations table as a strong state and not as a weak one.” Israel’s “friends.” she continued, “have a choice–either help us in our struggle or see us struggle alone.”

In that connection, she added “we are not fooling ourselves” about the “brutal power of the Soviets” that “stands against us” in addition to Arab power. “I do trust our pilots.” she declared. “I trust our boys in the trenches, our children in the shelters and their mothers. I trust the people of Israel, who are not panicking although they are not fooling themselves about the so-called peace negotiations. I trust the Jewish people and I trust you.” Mrs. Meir said Israeli pilots in enemy captivity were holding onto their military secrets with all their strength, even to the point of avoiding medical treatment that might act to draw the information out of them. The Premier said Israel must remain strong because at the first sign of weakness she will lose all her “friends.”