The members of the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission held a private meeting today but adjourned without making any announcement. It is understood that the Commission has not decided as yet whether to draft a report on its current talks with the Israelis and the Arabs to be submitted in time for the opening here of the U.N. General Assembly on November 6, or whether to wait for a later date in the hope that so me progress may be made mean while in the negotiations.
The Commission has been urging a mutual release by Israel and the Arab states of blocked accounts, mutual cancellation of war damage claims, repatriation of Arab refugees to Israel, so fare as possible, and an Arab-Israel conference on a list of other issues. Israel notified the Commission that it will not negotiate with the Arab states here because their “goodwill” reply to the Commission’s request for a declaration of non-aggressive intentions was inadequate and even short of previous Arab commitments.
Maurice Fisher, head of the Israeli delegation at the talks here, emphasized today that in refusing to negotiate with the Arabs until they pledge not to commit any hostile acts against the Jewish state, Israel is not breaking off the talks, “Israel could not enter into direct or indirect negotiations until the Arabs reaffirm what they already signed,” he declared, “but the Israeli delegation desires to cooperate with the Conciliation Commission and is ready to examine any question with it as a United Nations organization.”
The Commission may be faced with what it has never officially recognized –that there are two conference going on in Paris, one with the Arabs and another with the Jews. The Israelis have carefully refrained from any controversy with the Commission and have carefully not made public their second letter to the Commission protesting the Arab attitude, nor have they revealed all of their statements to the Commission.
The next move is for the Commission and Israel to consider the impact of the new basis on which the talks will be held. It is not yet clear what questions Israel can discuss with the Commission but it is obvious that the Commission’s five-point plan which concerns the revision of the armistice agreements cannot a this time be considered because it involves an agenda for specific negotiations.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
