The semi-official daily El Nacional reported today that Israeli and Mexican diplomats “shook hands” and drank coffee together after the Israelis heard an explanation by Foreign Ministry officials of the letter Mexico sent to the UN Security Council earlier this month. The letter was widely viewed as an implicit attack on Israel for its rescue of the Air France hijack hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda July 3.
Vincente Montano, writing in El Nacional, said Israel Embassy officials visited the Foreign Ministry here to complain about the letter. The letter’s complete text was read to them to prove that no attack on Israel was intended since Israel was not mentioned in the text. Afterwards, Montano wrote, the Israelis and Mexicans “shook hands, drank coffee and ended (their meeting) as friendly as ever.”
Nevertheless, the PLO representative here, Marwan Tahoub, expressed high praise for Mexico’s foreign policy and its letter to the Security Council. Speaking at a reception at the Egyptian Embassy. Tahoub, according to a report in El Nacional, stated that Mexican policy coincided with that of the PLO and that both condemned air piracy.
NO NEW BOYCOTT EXPECTED
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Alfonso Garcia Robles said at a press conference that he did not expect a new Jewish boycott of Mexico because such action was contrary, to the interests and wishes of Israel expressed by Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon during his official visit to Mexico last March.
The newspaper Excelsior published an economic study today made by the financial trust, Banamex, which attributed the decline of tourism in Mexico to factors other than the Jewish boycott instituted last winter after Mexico voted for the General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism. According to the survey, Mexico suffered a loss of tourists because of high prices and the competition of cheaper package tours to Hawaii and Puerto Rico marketed by American travel agents.
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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.
