Israeli officialdom expressed sorrow today over the death Monday night of former French President Charles de Gaulle, who prior to the Six-Day War was a staunch friend of the Jewish State. In a message to President Georges Pompidou. President Zalman Shazar voiced “my most sincere condolences” on the passing of “one of the greatest statesmen of our century,” continuing: “For us he will forever remain the eternal symbol of the resistance of civilized man to the barbaric oppression of the Nazi hordes. At the darkest moments of that persecution the Jews of the entire world saw in him a living ray of hope. The people of Israel will never forget his actions and his work on the threshold of our national independence.” Premier Golda Meir wrote to French Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas that “Israel and her people will always cherish the memory of the illustrious soldier who restored to the French people its honor and liberty in the struggle against the Nazi tyranny.” Former Israeli Premier David Ben-Gurion said that Gen. de Gaulle was never an enemy of Israel” and that “all the Jewish press very much exaggerated his supposed hostility to Israel and to Jews.”
The Israeli press praised the Frenchman’s attitude toward Jews and Israel up to the Six-Day War. One Israeli newspaper carried a cartoon showing de Gaulle with the inscription 1890-1967. The date 1967 was seen as a reference to the time some Israelis feel de Gaulle died so far as Israel was concerned. (In New York, Foreign Minister Abba Eban cabled condolences to his French counterpart, Maurice Schumann, and to Mrs. Yvonne de Gaulle.) Mr. Ben-Gurion, who left today to attend a memorial service in Paris tomorrow with President Shazar, sent a letter to Gen. de Gaulle hours before his death in which he noted two errors in the Frenchman’s just-published fourth volume of memoirs. The first concerns Gen. de Gaulle’s contention that in 1960 Premier Ben-Gurion told him of Israel’s ambition to expand her borders. “The majority of the Knesset never thought for a moment of expanding the borders,” Mr. Ben-Gurion wrote. The second error concerns Gen. de Gaulle’s references to the “Tel Aviv government.” Mr. Ben-Gurion wrote him that “The Israeli government sits in Jerusalem, and I never heard any French minister or Army man say that it has to sit in Tel Aviv.” Before June, 1967, Gen. de Gaulle supplied Israel with sophisticated aircraft and other arms as well as a wide range of modern equipment. Then he suddenly advised Israel not to strike at the massed Arab armies–at a time when he saw himself as the leader of the “third world” and was trying to bring the Arabs into it. He also had an eye on French influence in Northern Africa and the rest of the Arab world.
After the Six-Day War, Gen. de Gaulle caused much bitterness in Jewish circles with a comment about “Jewish arrogance.” The general, as President of France, subsequently suspended the deal for 50 Mirage jets for which Israel had already paid $50 million and then imposed a complete embargo on arms to Israel. French diplomacy since then has taken on an anti-Israel coloration. In a confidential interview on Feb. 14,1969, with correspondent C. L. Sulzberger, published in today’s New York Times, Gen. de Gaulle said: “You (the U.S.) were against France and Israel in 1956 at the time of the Suez invasion for reasons that are just the contrary of our differences now. Now the United States is with Israel, which wishes to take the Suez Canal. The United States has changed its policy–and so has France. We agree that Israel should exist and should be a state–but not in an exaggerated way. The situation in the Middle East is not good today and it is not soluble along the lines Israel wishes. On this subject perhaps Nixon can draw closer to our policy.” After explaining that France was neutral in the Mideast, President de Gaulle said: “In 1967 I told Israel not to attack. I also told the same to the Arabs. We told both sides that we would hold either one responsible if it attacked the other.” Lebanese Premier Saeb Salam said today that “The Arabs have lost a great friend and a firm supporter of their cause.” King Hussein of Jordan wrote President Pompidou that the general had understood “the just Arab cause.
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.
