Israel’s Foreign Minister, Mrs. Golda Meir, urged the United Nations today to give increasing attention to armament preparation and threats of war such as those being carried out by the Arab states against Israel which, if allowed to continue, can “erode the foundations” of the United Nations itself.
In her major policy address at the U. N. General Assembly, Mrs. Meir said that acquiescence by the United Nations in the face of such belligerent threats as those voiced by the Arab states against Israel “is not only unjustified toward the state threatened by aggression; it erodes the foundation of the organization itself and impairs its moral authority in other cases.”
The disruptive effects of such warlike threats, the Israeli Foreign Minister declared, “do not await actual hostilities. Long before that, the would-be attacker stocks arms to carry out his designs while the designated victim has to arm for his own defense.” While noting the obvious dangers of nuclear warfare, Mrs. Meir also urged increased attention to the stockpiling of conventional arms.
APPEALS TO ARABS FOR PEACE, COEXISTENCE AND COOPERATION
The Foreign Minister reiterated in her address Israel’s oft-repeated call to its Arab neighbors to “substitute for a doctrine of war the doctrine of peace, coexistence and fruitful cooperation.”
Commenting on the Arab war threats against Israel, voiced at the recent Arab summit meeting in Casablanca, as well as at similar earlier Arab conclaves, Mrs. Meir scored the Arab leaders for their deliberation on “a program of aggression against a member state, calling for a unified military command, piling up more weapons and even recruiting and training refugees supported by United Nations Relief and Works Agency to operate against our territory.
“Let no one feel reassured at the allegedly ‘good news’ that a war which Arab leaders describe as inevitable has been postponed for four years,” Mrs. Meir stated. “By insisting on their war aims and pursuing their war preparations, they are condemning the region to years of a wasteful and escalating arms race, in which Israel too is obliged, against its will, to divert precious resources and efforts into maintaining its own armed strength since its defense capability is essential to deter its enemies.
“The price tag for such an arms race,” she added, “includes the retarding of progress, the poisoning of young minds in the Arab countries with sentiments of hatred and revenge and the building up of explosive tensions. It is to us paradoxical that states that proclaim these doctrines of war and pursue these policies sit as members of the United Nations and even as members of the Security Council and disarmament committees. It is our contention that the United Nations as such cannot close its ears to doctrines and policies of war unless it wishes to abdicate its primary responsibility.”
SAYS U. N. SHOWS SLOW PROGRESS IN DRAFT ON RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE
While voicing concern over the slow progress of the drafts concerning religious intolerance, the Israel Foreign Minister told the Assembly however, that “a positive approach is apparent in what has already been done on this topic by the Commission on Human Rights.” She hailed in her address the progress achieved by the United Nations in drafting declarations and conventions on racial prejudice and urged the specific inclusion of an article condemning anti-Semitism in such declarations.
In an obvious reference to the plight of Soviet Jewry, Mrs. Meir declared: “It remains a matter of sorrow and concern to us that a certain large Jewish community suffers serious disabilities and discrimination, which are causing distress not only to their fellow-Jews, but also to decent and liberal opinion in other lands. A few concessions have recently been made and we can only hope that they are signs of a more liberal policy. It is hard to understand what the great country concerned could stand to gain by stifling an ancient faith, culture and language, belonging to a minority group.” Mrs. Meir also voiced Israel’s opposition to “policies of racial or religious discrimination, colonialism and apartheid, wherever they exist.”
SAYS U. N. MUST NOT SUBSIDIZE ‘PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION’
Mrs. Meir, who is leaving for Israel this weekend until sometime after the Israeli Parliamentary elections November 2, told a press conference earlier today that Israel will press for action at the U. N. for the removal of the members of the “Palestine Liberation Organization” from the U. N. Relief and Works Agency list. If the U. N. fails to take action, she added, Israel would consider this a direct subsidy for war. The PLO is an Arab League organization recruiting refugees for infiltrator attacks on Israel border areas.
Mrs. Meir said that in her meetings with diplomats from various member states she found “friendly understanding” and that she was “extremely satisfied.” During these talks, she said, she stressed the issues of the campaign against Israel carried out by E1 Fatah terrorists and Israel’s membership in the “Group of 75,” the organization of developing states in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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.
