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Mrs. Meir Rejects Comparison Between Problems of Jews and Palestinians Only Two Countries Possible:

July 26, 1973
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Premier Golda Meir rejected today comparisons between the situation of the Jewish people and those of the Palestinian Arabs. Addressing the Knesset on its last day before adjourning for the summer recess and the October elections, Mrs. Meir said such a comparison was a “complete distortion.”

While Jews around the world lived outside of their homeland, the Palestinian Arabs can express their nationality in Jordan, she said. “Israel is the only country in the world where the people of Israel can live in Jewish independence,” Mrs. Meir said.

She reiterated that between the Mediterranean and the eastern desert there was room for two countries only, a Jewish state and an Arab state, Israel and Jordan. She said “we oppose the creation of an additional Arab state.” While the Palestinian refugee problem was caused because the Arab states prevented any solution in the Middle East, Mrs. Meir said, Israel had started after the Six-Day War to rehabilitate Arab refugees under its control. “We did and we shall do our utmost, and ‘we shall try to obtain resources from international sources to achieve this goal.” she said.

REJECTS NEGOTIATIONS WITH TERRORIST GROUPS

Mrs. Meir rejected the possibility of Israel negotiating with the Arab terrorist organizations. saying, “It is not acceptable that we shall negotiate with murderous organizations which aspire to destroy Israel and create in its place a Palestinian state.” She expressed surprise at repeated mention in the United Nations and other places of the “legitimate interests” of the Palestinian people.”These statements do not contribute to the advancement of peace,” she said. They only en-courage the terror organizations ideologically and cause false hopes, she added.

Mrs. Meir devoted most of her two-hour speech to internal social problems, saying that since 1970 the security budget was declining in proportion to other parts of the total budget. She said poverty is now more complex than in the past. In addition to being a matter of low standard of living, it also was a matter of the subjective feeling of the individual, she noted.

Mrs. Meir said the main objective of the government had been to secure a minimum standard of income, education and housing. One objective was already reached, she said, declaring that there are no more families in Israel which do not get the minimum income.

The National Conference on Soviet Jewry said today that “it has reason to believe” that Soviet authorities in Tblisi, Soviet Georgia, will make a decision next week regarding the possible trial of Grigory and-Isai Goldstein. The NCSJ urged that the Jewish community call upon Soviet officials in Washington, Moscow and Tblisi to cancel the Trial “in the spirit of detente.”

Linda Weinstrotzki, 22, of Chicago, who was swept away from the shore while bathing at a closed beach north of Haifa on Monday, was found dead today a-half mile from where she disappeared. The. friend who accompanied her reached shore safely.

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