Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy appealed to Arab leaders Wednesday to abandon their “blind hatred” for the Jewish state and to join with Israel in working toward peace in the troubled Middle East.
In his remarks before the U.N. General Assembly, Levy called on the neighboring Arab states to “abandon all destructive impulses.”
“Do not waste your resources,” he said. “Do not renounce the opportunity for progress and welfare for your own countries for the sake of the illusory dream of destroying Israel.”
Levy spoke of the proposed Middle East peace conference as he made his appeal to the Arab leaders and asked them to “think of your children as we think of ours.
“They were not born to be killed,” he said. “They were born to live.”
Earlier in the week, in their remarks to the General Assembly, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa accused Israel of jeopardizing the peace process by refusing to put a halt to the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Moussa spoke Monday in support of negotiations toward convening the peace conference, but he said the continued construction of settlements in the territories “has a negative effect on the prospects for peace, as it attempts to entrench a fait accompli that represents a violation of law and legitimacy.”
The Egyptian foreign minister said progress toward peace would necessitate an immediate cessation of the settlement-building policy.
TIES ESTABLISHED WITH MONGOLIA
Sharaa claimed that the Arabs are seeking peace but that Israel is obstructing the process, in that “peace and usurpation of other people’s land do not go together.”
Levy did not address the issue of settlements in his speech.
Some members of the Arab delegations left their seats Wednesday as Levy made his remarks, in keeping with their tradition of leaving the room when Israel takes the rostrum.
Levy also used the speech as an opportunity to push for the repeal of the 1975 U.N. General Assembly resolution denigrating Zionism as racism.
While addressing the General Assembly on Tuesday, Sharaa said repeal of the resolution should be predicated on termination of the “Israeli occupation” of Arab lands.
Levy has said there should be no linkage between the quest for peace and the resolution.
Earlier Wednesday, Levy and Tserenpiliin Gombosuren, the Mongolian minister for external relations, announced jointly the establishment of diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the Republic of Mongolia.
Levy asked Gombosuren for Mongolian support in repealing the resolution on Zionism. Gombosuren did not give Levy a commitment, but said he would research the matter.
The new relationship between the two countries signifies the latest move in the warming of relations between Israel and the countries of the former Soviet bloc, according to Dr. Harris Schoenberg, director of U.N. affairs for B’nai B’rith International.
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.
