Israel’s Ambassador to the United States said today that Egypt is seeking a political settlement of the Middle East conflict imposed by outside powers which would “establish a regime of temporary non-violence” but contain “the seeds for further conflict and war.” Yitzhak Rabin addressed a dinner of the American Jewish Congress at which he accepted the organization’s Stephen S. Wise Award for “moral courage and love of liberty.”
Other recipients of the Wise Award were Roy Wilkins, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Bernard Z. Zients, president of Gimbels, New York.
Gen. Rabin said he believed Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser when he said he wanted a political settlement. “The hallmark of a political settlement, as Nasser sees it, is continuing non-recognition, outside intermediaries, third parties, outside involvement, outside guarantees and continued ostracism — diplomatic, political and commercial — of one party towards the other,” Gen. Rabin said. “And since a political settlement does not eradicate the roots of the conflict it automatically enshrines the seeds for further conflict and war. This is precisely why the political set-up enshrined in the arrangements of 1957 laid the groundwork for the war of ’67.”
Gen. Rabin said that for Israel peace means “the final and declared liquidation of the Israel-Arab conflict” involving peace treaties “because only peace treaties can end a war and establish peace.”
In an address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Gen. Rabin said that the U.S. Government and Trans World Airlines were responsible for demanding the release of two Israelis held captive in Syria since their TWA airliner was hijacked to Damascus by Arab commandos on Aug. 29. According to international law, he said, the airliner was American “territory” while it was in the air.
Mrs. Slomo Samueloff and Mrs. Sallah Muallem, who visited Washington, New York, London and Rome to enlist support for their husband’s release, found only sympathy and vague promises. Back in Israel, they said their most “shocking disappointment” came in a meeting with F.C. Weiser, TWA president. They said that he not only did not apologize for not replying to letters Mrs. Samueloff sent him but also evaded making any promises on behalf of the two Israelites.
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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.
