Menachem Beigin, leader of the right-wing nationalist Gahal (Herut-Liberal) faction claimed here yesterday that Israel will not stand alone in its present “fateful struggle.” Mr. Beigin said Israel could count or allies because “the growing extent of Soviet control in the region is upsetting the balance between the forces of the free and the Communist worlds.” Mr. Beigin, a minister-without-portfolio in the Israeli Cabinet, praised Premier Golda Meir’s broad coalition government for the same reasons that it has been criticized by others. According to Mr. Beigin, the 22-member government embracing all but a few splinter parties, is “the most wonderful phenomenon in the history of the Jewish people.” He claimed that “not even in the uprisings against the Romans and in the ghettoes were the Jews so united.” (In Washington, Sen. Charles H. Percy, Republican of Illinois, said that “the Arab states would be well advised that they will be the big losers if they allow the USSR to become more deeply involved in the Middle East.” Sen. Percy warned that “Arab sovereignty would be suffocated by greater Soviet involvement in Arab countries.” He said the Soviet Union has the “capability to manipulate the Arab state she helps for her own purposes in the military, political, diplomatic and economic fields.” If Arab leaders hope to maintain effective control of their own nations, “they would do better to restrict Soviet influence and actions in their countries,” Percy said in a statement released this weekend.)
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.
