Reaction in Israel to Rogers’ Speech: Nothing New

Israel’s reaction to U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers’ address last night in New York at a farewell dinner for Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin was that it contained nothing new. The closest thing to an official Israels reaction came from Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Addressing Labor Party youth leaders at Kfar Saba he observed that “There was not a single phrase or expression in Rogers’ statement that was not made in a similar or identical way during the last year.”

Eban said that Rogers conveyed no message of a new American initiative in the Middle East although he may have indicated some additional American activity in connection with its original initiative that resulted in the Aug. 1970 cease-fire. (A State Department spokesman said today in Washington that Rogers’ address was “an important restatement of our position and an assessment of where we stand.”)

Rogers appealed to Israelis and Arabs to enter into some kind of “genuine, meaningful negotiating process.” He said the U.S. regarded negotiations for an interim Suez agreement to be “the most realistic approach” to an overall settlement. He said a final settlement must take into consideration the rights of Israel, the Arab states and the Palestinians.

Israeli political circles seemed to agree with Eban’s assessment of Rogers’ remarks. They said his references to the possibility of proximity talks on a Suez accord confirmed Israel’s expectation that after a cease-fire is achieved in Vietnam, Washington will resume its efforts to bring Israel and Egypt into the negotiating process. The circles stressed Israel’s readiness to take part in proximity talks and noted that Israel advised the U.S. of this in Jan. 1972, but the Egyptians refused to participate.