Israelis Cool to British Efforts to Settle Mideast Crisis and Reopen Suez Canal

Israel officials have expressed doubts that British efforts to find a compromise formula to end the Middle Eastern deadlock and reopen the Suez Canal are of any practical value, as long as the United States and the USSR stand by their opposing views. The Israelis have, in fact, expressed annoyance with the British efforts, the only effects of which, as they see it, is to heighten Arab intransigence and increase tensions in the area.

The British stand has been widely assailed in the Israeli press. The independent Haaretz said in an editorial today that “fortunately Britain’s acts or omissions aren’t of any great importance to us, to the United States or to any other country.”