White House press spokesman George Christian announced today that President Johnson is concerned about the new outbreak of hostilities between Egypt and Israel. The President was to see Foreign Minister Abba S. Eban of Israel tonight.
After reports were received here of the new outbreak of fighting along the Suez Canal, Mr. Christian was asked what steps the Administration was taking. He replied that “we always try to determine the seriousness of a situation.” He said that the United States was doing all it could, working at the United Nations, to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israel issue.
Speaking of President Johnson, Mr. Christian said: “Of course he is concerned about outbreaks of violence and the incident of the ship sinking.”
Mr. Eban met today with Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Katzenbach. The meeting took place at about the same time that initial reports arrived here of the latest outbreak. Mr. Eban commented after the meeting that he had expressed indignation at the “flagrant act of aggression” by Egypt in the sinking of the Elath. The Israeli Foreign Minister also met today with Dr. Jose Mora, Secretary-General of the Organization of American States.
Mr. Eban addressed the National Press Club today and declared that the sinking of the Elath carried Israeli indignation to the highest pitch since the June war. He said this incident illustrated the urgent requirement for entirely new relations, and pledged that “we shall never, never go back either to the political and juridical anarchy or to the strategic and territorial vulnerability from which we have emerged. He said the war could be ended only by treaties of peace.”
The Foreign Minister insisted that “the old Middle Eastern structure which President Nasser decided to disrupt last May cannot be restored.” He said: “We accept the statement signed by Israel and her four neighbors in 1949 that the armistice lines dictated by exclusively military considerations are not to be regarded as political or territorial boundaries. We now insist on the agreed demarcation of the political and territorial boundaries which we have never known. Until the new peace map is negotiated, the present cease-fire map will be fully maintained. The June 4 map, with its explicit conditions of irredentism, non-recognition and impermanence is gone forever.”
Mr. Eban declared that “the Arab states are asking the world community to pretend that they have neither provoked, conducted, nor lost a war, and that the revolutionary events of last June can have no consequences.” He said: “We cannot condone the idea that the Arab states are entitled to ostracize Israel while making claims against her; to request Israel’s consideration while denying her existence. That is why direct negotiation is not just a matter of mere procedural form. It is a matter of political principle. If any international agency or friendly government believes that it can bring the Arab governments and Israel into direct and unconditional contact, we shall support its efforts. But no peace has ever been made between those who refuse to set eyes on each other. We shall interpret a refusal to meet us as a refusal to make peace, and shall maintain the existing reality until all Middle Eastern states recognize the compulsion of a future to be shared in peace.”
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.
