Latest developments in Washington and Cairo with reference to Israel’s right to use the Suez Canal are viewed with apprehension in top government circles here, it was learned today.
These circles feel that reports from Cairo and Washington “reveal an unfavorable trend, as though Israel’s rights are forgotten in order to ease the way for solutions for others, ” Highly placed Israelis note that the United States position on Israels right to navigate the canal in full equality with other nations, firmly expressed by President Eisenhower in a television speech February 21, is being soft-pedalled.
These same sources emphasized that nothing had occurred to change Israel’s determination to avail itself of the right to use the canal. They stated that an oil transportation alone denial of the Suez Canal has cost Israel $15, 000, 000 in the last year.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post scored the United States today for the “downright weakness which it displayed on the question of passage through the Akaba Gulf to Elath. It noted that President Eisenhower yesterday reiterated the American view that the waterway was international, but advised prudence as far as American use of the Gulf was concerned. This type of vacillation, the Jerusalem Post said, gave the Arab states the idea they could blackmail the U.S. and, more easily, Iran from which Israel might obtain oil.
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