Chancellor Bruno Kreisky has advised Israel to shun the belief that it is the “chosen people” because such belief could lead to a great change in world opinion and further isolate the Jewish State. Kreisky offered his advice in an interview published in the Austrian theoretical journal. Academia, which devotes its Jan. edition to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Kreisky, who will lead a group of European Socialist leaders on a fact-finding mission to the Middle East next month, warned that Israel would have to change its attitude as far as the military aspects of its policy are concerned. Only such change can guarantee a true and lasting peace in the Middle East, he said.
“They (the Israelis) must change their stand in all problems concerning the question of Palestinian refugees, which I cannot join from my point of view,” the Austrian Chancellor said. He said the first goal of international policy was to integrate all peoples into one human society. He added that he would do his best to preserve a true and unadulterated Jewish State.
The same edition of Academia published an interview with Israeli Chief Rabbi-Shlomo Goren who said that Israel wants only to live in peace, with the Arabs no less than with the rest of the world. “We don’t hate them (the Arabs). Jews always had a better life in the Arab than in the Christian world and this is an historical fact,” Rabbi Goren said.
He stated, however, that Israel is faced with a struggle for its very existence. “The Arabs can lose their wars more than once–maybe more than a hundred times–but if we lose only once we will be on the ground and must hope for clemency from our enemies,” he said. He described the Jewish State as “the realization of the Messianic idea and hope.”
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.
