Shazar Says He Told Nixon End of Cease-fire Also Ended Tranquility in Mideast

Israeli President Zalman Shazar said today he believed President Nixon was impressed by his presentation of Israel’s general approach to the Middle East situation in their 35-minute private talk in Washington on Monday. Shazar also disclosed that he had advised Nixon that the formal lapsing of the cease-fire Sunday had ended the “tranquility” in the area. The Israeli statesman reported these details at an on-the-record ceremony in his hotel suite this morning after being named “the one and only honorary member” of the American Zionist Federation by its president, Rabbi Israel Miller. Shazar felt during his meeting with Nixon, he related, that as president of Israel and not Premier he could not tell Nixon “If you’ll be good to us, we’ll be good to you.” To his rapt audience of two dozen American Jewish leaders, Shazar assured them that “a time will come when all will be fulfilled.” He started in Hebrew, then switched to Yiddish, speaking in a highly dramatic delivery and emphasizing his major points with intensity and considerable arm-waving.

The 81-year-old Shazar said he had spoken to Nixon “not only as a fellow President, diplomat and statesman but as an old Jew who has devoted 70 years of his life to the cause of the Zionist movement, 60 years of it in the land of Israel.” American Zionism, he added, reflected the Purim spirit of “light, joy, gladness and honor.” A few minutes earlier, in a separate ceremony, Shazar was presented with the first copy of a new two-volume “Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel,” published under his patronage by McGraw-Hill and the Herzl Press. Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman of the Herzl Press and of the Jewish Agency-American Section, praised his “encouragement.” Shazar responded with a request for a similar encyclopedia on the American Zionist movement, and Dr. Neumann promised to turn his wish into reality. This morning, Shazar welcomed a group of scholars from the Dropsie University. Philadelphia, led by Dr. Abraham I. Katsh, president of the postgraduate university, and Dr. Solomon Zeitlin, professor of post-biblical literature and institutions. Dropsie is the country’s only non-theological, non-sectarian college devoted to Hebrew, Biblical and Middle Eastern languages and cultures and to Jewish higher education. Shazar also received Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller today, and will meet tomorrow with a delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Yesterday, Shazar conferred with Mayor John V. Lindsay.