In his short, technically unofficial, visit to Washington, Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban re-enforced those outlines of Israel’s positions that have been emerging ever since Premier Golda Meir’s private two-hour talk with President Nixon at the White House in Dec. In addition, Eban cautioned against expecting any dramatic developments on the Middle East either from the “little summit” between Mrs. Meir and Rumanian President Nicolae Ceausescu in Bucharest beginning May 5 or the “superpower summit” in Moscow two weeks later.
His address Thursday night, concluding the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference which was the stated purpose of his visit; his speech Friday at the National Press Club where, by making his fourth appearance as Foreign Minister he equaled the all-time record jointly held by the late Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India; his responses to newsmen’s questions, both after his Press Club discourse and at the State Department after a 11/2 hour session with Secretary of State William P. Rogers, brought out the following Israeli views:
EBAN: WE DON’T HAVE ARBITRARY POSITION
The Middle East’s “balance sheet” for the past six months, since Eban’s Oct. visit to Washington–is “not a bad one.” The area no longer is “the center of world tension.” Improvements include the decline in the power of extremist elements, the maintenance of the military balance, and the realization by Israel’s opponents that war is no answer to problems.
The “mutual confidence and understanding” between Israel and America has reached the highest peak that it has ever known. (This point, analysts observed, is being made more frequently by Israeli officials in American speeches). The reasons are: US fidelity to the cease-fire; the military balance; American adherence to the principle of non-imposition of a settlement on the parties; and the availability of its good offices to help them agree.
For “security and to prevent a new war” Israel is resolved and determined never to return to its pre-June 1967 borders and those “neuralgic” points that have caused wars. At the Press Club, Eban explicitly detailed that Israeli military control of the Golan Heights spells peace for that sector and that the party in power at Sharm el-Sheikh will “determine” Israel’s “development or strangulation” because that point in the Sinai is “the key to the development of the Negev” and Israel’s “outlet to two-thirds of the world.” But, he emphasized, “we don’t have an arbitrary position. Our objective is Israel’s security and avoidance of wars.”
Mrs. Meir’s visit to Bucharest stems from the confidence the Rumanian government enjoys in both Cairo and Jerusalem and thereby is “able to convey correct and intimate impressions” to both Israel and Egypt. Bucharest, Eban said at least twice, has not used the word “mediate” regarding this activity. (News analysts put high significance on the fact that Moscow, Cairo and Washington publicly are saying nothing to disturb the presence, for the first time since June, 1967, of an Israeli top official in a Communist country–granted that Rumania pursues a course not always in harmony with the Soviet Union.)
U.S. OPPOSED TO INFLUENCE OF ONE POWER
At least tacit Egyptian approval of the “little summit” has been indicated in Cairo. President Sadat’s imminent visit to Moscow is seen as a vital clue to this development.
Immediately after his meeting with Rogers and in view of the Rumanian invitation to Mrs. Meir, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency asked Eban whether a softening of the Soviet Union’s position towards Israel was included in his assessment of an improved “balance” in the Middle East. Eban responded that he is “not aware” of the Soviet position since Israel has no “direct communication” with the Kremlin.
The Soviet, he said, is “still identified” with the Arab position, although “that identity has not reached the point of working against the ceasefire.” Later, at the Press Club, Eban observed that the Soviet treaties with Egypt and Iraq, the growth of its naval power in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean indicated the Soviet’s “constant effort to expand” its presence in those areas. But, he saw “fresh evidence” that the US was not thinking of “liquidating its presence” in the Middle East and that the US would not allow the area to come “under the dominant influence of one power.”
ROGERS’ 1969 POSITION ‘ON RECORD’
The AIPAC conference, it was noted, brought out considerable speculation on American official views with the President’s visit to Moscow scarcely a month away. Agreement seemed general, as JTA had reported previously, that all that may be prudently expected from President Nixon’s visit to the Kremlin is a joint expression of continuing efforts”-“A pious hope,” one authority said–for a solution to the Middle East problems by peaceful means within the UN Security Council Resolution 242.
Regarding the absence from the Eban speeches of specific Israeli-American agreement or disagreement on Israel’s “secure” and “new” boundaries, one authority observed that the territorial aspect of the relationship was covered by the American principle of “non-imposition” of a settlement on the parties. At the State Department, the JTA was informed the Rogers position of Dec. 1969 involving “unsubstantial” territorial changes from the 1967 frontiers continued “on record” as “American policy.”
Nevertheless, the scant American official public references to it since Mrs. Meir’s White House visit is indicative that while the State Department will not repudiate that historical record, it has realistically been shelved. Israel’s borders, JTA understands, were not discussed at Friday’s Eban-Rogers meeting.
One hundred Arab prisoners and detainees in the Gaza area were released last week under an amnesty granted on the occasion of Independence Day. Another 20 are expected to be freed shortly. The amnesties were granted as the result of a case-by-case review by a special committee appointed by the Military Governor. Prisoners serving sentences for murder were not included.
The Cabinet confirmed today the appointment of Simha Dinitz as director general of the Prime Minister’s Office. He succeeds the late Dr. Yaacov Herzog.
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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.
