U.N. Watches Reaction in Israel to Its Resolution; Keeps Eye on Jordan

United Nations circles were watching very closely today the developments in Jordan and Israel’s reaction to the resolution adopted last Friday by the U.N. Security Council censoring Israel for its retaliatory raid into Jordan on November 13 and warning against reprisal raids in the future. Fourteen of the 15 members of the Security Council voted for the resolution, with New Zealand abstaining.

Michael S. Comay, Israel’s permanent delegate to the United Nations, speaking at a press conference, said that the resolution did not treat the basic causes of Israeli-Arab conflict at all. He noted that Holland and Uganda and New Zealand had protested against the draft resolution for its failure to note the causes — the constant Arab guerrilla raids into Israel — as a basic element of the total situation.

Mr. Comay said that it was unfortunate that in all the years of Security Council attention to elements of the Middle East conflict, there had never been a clear-cut condemnation of repeated Arab violations of the U.N. Charter and the armistice agreements, while the Council never had difficulty in agreeing that Israel had been at fault.

He suggested that Big Powers’ concern for the stability of the Jordanian regime appeared to have been a major factor in the approach to the problems discussed in the Council in the debate on Jordan’s complaint. He emphasized that Israel had a basic duty to protect the lives and property of its citizens and that while it was willing to consider any sound approach to help obtain Arab respect for the integrity of Israel’s borders, it could not remain idle in the hope of such help from the Security Council while infiltrators were killing Israeli citizens and destroying Israeli property.