Rabin Tells Aj Congress Peace Depends on Abandonment of Khartoum Policy

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, has voiced skepticism about the meaning of Egyptian agreement to continue peace talks in New York with Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring, the United Nations special peace envoy to the Middle East. In an address to the American Jewish Congress national biennial convention here, Rabin declared, “the question is not whether the Jarring mission will continue in the Middle East or in New York. The basic question is whether there has been a change in Egyptian policy, whether Egypt is prepared to recognize Israel and come to a peaceful settlement.” Rabin called on Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to abandon the Arab policy adopted at Khartoum last summer of “no peace, no recognition, no talks with Israel.”

The AJC called today on the Johnson Administration to seek an agreement with Soviet Russia to end the Middle East arms race. The call came as the organization wound up its convention with the reelection of Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, of Cleveland, to a second two-year term as national president. The 500 delegates also adopted a series of resolutions among which were a condemnation of the continuing Soviet repression of Jewish cultural and religious life and a call to Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin to redeem his 1966 pledge that Soviet Jews would be allowed to emigrate in order to be reunited with their families in Israel and elsewhere. The convention expressed concern over the growing strength of the right-wing National Democratic Party in West Germany, which has been described as neo-Nazi, and went on record in support of Chancellor Kurt G. Klesinger’s call for electoral reforms that would reduce the possibility of the NPD securing seats in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) in next year’s elections.