Pressure on Israel to Accept Big Four Guarantee Will Bypass Road to Peace, Says Miller

Any pressures on Israel to accept four-power guarantees for a Mideast peace will not lead to peace but constitute “an attempt to bypass the only road to true peace” in that part of the world, which lies in an agreement reached between Israel and the Arab states, said Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation. Addressing the executive committee of the Federation today on the eve of the next Big Four meeting, Rabbi Miller said that “Our government must continue to press for a freely negotiated peace agreement arrived at between the adversaries in the Middle East conflict. Any pressures or even the appearance of pressure–or any attempts to substitute a peace-keeping force composed of outside powers as an alternative to a peace agreement arrived at between the parties to the conflict–smacks of an imposed peace, which, at best, is an illusory peace. We expect that our government, which has consistently opposed an imposed peace, will remain firm on this matter.” Rabbi Miller was also highly critical of the Rogers proposals of Dec. 1969, which call for insubstantial changes in the pre-June, 1967 armistice lines between Israel and Egypt. “If the Nixon administration wishes to be realistic about a Mideast peace, the sooner the Rogers proposals are dropped the better are the chances for achieving such a peace.”