Premier Golda Meir made it clear today that her government has no intention of making peace proposals to the Arabs at this time because “there is no one to whom any proposals can be conveyed.” She said the Israeli Cabinet has dropped for the time being the discussion of plans proposed by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Deputy Premier Yigal Allon on the future of the occupied territories. These are proposals that can come up for consideration only when peace is in sight, Mrs. Meir told journalists at a press luncheon here. She blamed foreign correspondents for “much of the confusion reigning abroad regarding Israel’s intentions.” She said some of them raise conjectures that one plan or another must be ruled out as long as the Israeli government is composed as it is. Mrs. Meir said that if peace appeared to be imminent and serious differences arose within the government, then new elections for a new parliament and new government were possible in a democratic country such as Israel.
Mrs. Meir repeated her contention that there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. “Before 1948 we were all Palestinians, both Jews and Arabs, and I have my old passport to prove it,” she said. She claimed that “if those who call themselves Palestinians today want a state of their own, they could re-name Jordan because more than half of the Jordanian population today originally lived West of the Jordan River.” She said that Jordan and Palestine constituted a single country when Palestinian boundaries were drawn after World War I.
Mrs. Meir said Israel favored international measures to assure the safety of civil aviation from terrorist attacks, but the rules must apply to Israel as well as other countries. She said the international community was shocked by the Swiss air disaster and Israel is waiting to see if effective measures will be taken. She said Israel would not announce in advance when it considers the time for international action has run out and what action it will take should that time come.
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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.
