Premier Golda Meir of Israel declared tonight that “We won’t run” if confronted with direct Soviet military intervention in Egypt. Mrs. Meir appeared on the BBC world affairs program, “Panorama.” If Israel has to fight the Russians, she said, “it is their choice, they have decided far away from their borders to join a fight that has nothing to do with them. Anybody who stands there against us and wishes to destroy us, whatever his nationality, is an enemy facing us in battle and we won’t run,” she said. Mrs. Meir was interviewed by Alan Hart whose provocative questions were frequently met with acerbic replies from the 72-year-old Premier. Asked by Hart if it were not Israel’s “bullying” tactics that brought Russian intervention by humiliating not only the Egyptians but the Russians by destroying so much of the equipment they supplied to Egypt. Mrs. Meir replied, “Poor Russians! They gave Egypt all that hardware knowing exactly what they wanted to do with it.”
She accused Russia of major responsibility for the Six-Day War, adding, “We refused to lose the war which would have meant death to this people. We fought back to stay alive.” When Mr. Hart suggested that continued Israeli attacks on Egypt might lead to a Big Power confrontation in the Middle East, Mrs. Meir replied, “That may be true, but what is Israel supposed to do to avoid humiliating the Russians and Egyptians and save the Big Powers from embarrassment? Conveniently pass out of this world? If that’s expected our friends had better understand that the people of Israel have no intention whatsoever to accommodate anybody by giving up its life or its sovereignty.”
She said Israelis did not go to Russia to fight Russian pilots, it is Russians who are stationed in Egypt. “This is not a war fought between Russia and Israel but between Egypt and Israel and anybody on Egyptian, Jordanian, or Syrian soil who fights us, we shall fight back,” Mrs. Meir said. Asked if Israel could count on American aid. Mrs. Meir said, “We don’t think any country will send an army just for our survival. The problem of the Russians in the area is not only an Israeli problem. The powers will have to solve their problems themselves. What Israel asks from friendly governments are the means of self-defense.”
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.
