Discussing the latest peace moves in the Middle East, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yitzhak Rabin, stated today: “Let’s keep the Middle East without bloodshed as long as possible. This is the most immediate and most important issue, not because we are afraid, but because we don’t want war even when we know we’ll win it, the same way as we won the others.”
Speaking at the final session of the 48th annual convention of the National Committee for Labor Israel, Rabin said “I hope the Arab leaders will find a way to avoid war and the major powers will find a way to influence–but not more than influence–the Arabs to seek peace.” Rabin expressed the hope that when Israel’s Premier Golda Meir arrives in Washington this week, “she will succeed in conveying to the United States government and people what Israel really wants and needs.”
Noting that tomorrow is the 24th anniversary of the United Nations resolution which partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, Rabin said, “the United Nations merely gave recognition to the Jewish struggle to have their own Jewish state in an area where there was once a Jewish state.”
The UN, he stated, did not create an independent Jewish state. “The Jewish people did,” Rabin declared. The United Nations, by failing to prevent the holocaust, paid their debt, and this was the last unique deed they performed when it comes to Israel.” Rabin stated that “while Israel is thankful to the United Nations for its political support, we cannot forget that while Israeli boys were bleeding to death in 1948, the United States put an embargo on arms to Israel.”
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.
