Israel neutrality between East and West is “incompatible” with the present situation or with Israel general policy, it was stated here today by authoritative sources in the wake of the Israel Cabinet’s regular weekly session. This statement was coupled with a denial that the left-wing parties within the Israel Cabinet were pressuring the government to adopt a more “neutralistic” line between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The denial followed publication in the Achdut Avodah newspaper “Lamerhav” that the Achdut Avodah and the Mapam would demand that the government straddle the fence between the two great power blocs in the hope of thus bringing about an amelioration of Soviet policy toward Israel. The newspaper claimed support for such changes from Dr. Nahum Godmann and Dr. Pinchas Rosen, head of the Israel Progressive Party.
It was indicated that the leftists would demand that Foreign Minister Golda Meir’s report tomorrow to the Knesset reflect such a change. Lamerhav states with considerable certainty that Mrs. Meir’s report will not again voice a request for unilateral American guarantees of support of Israel’s security.
Observers here, however, do not believe that Mrs. Meir will permit Israel’s foreign policy to be pushed toward a “neutralist” position, particularly since competent experts on Soviet policy, in a re-study last week of current Moscow developments, have predicted that the USSR will not change its views on Israel.
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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.
