Soviet Ambassador Dimitri Chuvakhin delivered a note to the Israel Foreign Ministry last night calling on Israel to halt fighting and to evacuate the territories it had occupied.
(Reports received in Washington disclosed that while the Soviets were reporting the war to the Russian people entirely by the Arab version, the Soviets were not informing their people about the Egyptian charge that United States and Britain had provided air cover for the victorious Israeli troops.)
Earlier, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol had sent an additional message to Premier Kosygin of the Soviet Union asking the Soviet to participate in a four power effort to secure peace in the Middle East. Mr. Eshkol cited Egyptian President Nasser’s repeated threats to destroy Israel and said this was a “ruthless design” to annihilate a nation “which embodies the memories and sacrifices and hopes of an ancient people which in this generation lost 6,000,000 of its people brutally murdered in a tragedy without parallel in history.”
Mr. Eshkol’s letter stressed that “we claim nothing except a peaceful life in our territory and the exercise of our international rights.” Surrounded by enemies on all sides, Israel “is now engaged in a mortal struggle to defend its existence and to forestall Egypt’s avowed intention to repeat against the Jewish people in Israel the inhuman crime committed by Hitler.” the Premier said. He added that Israel was confident that the Soviet Union would be “vindicated once more by an attitude of comprehension and brotherhood toward the Jewish people in its hour of trial.”
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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.
