Israel Rejects Saigon Offer
to Set Up Diplomatic Ties
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli
officials said Tuesday night that
diplomatic relations between Is-
rael and South Vietnam would not
be established for the present. The
same officials confirmed that
"feelers" for technical cooperation
had been put out by South Viet-
nam officials recently.
Earlier, informed sources had
been quoted as saying that Israel
would not, under present circum-
stances, give any consideration to
recognition of South Vietnam, and
that Israel had not negotiated
with South Vietnam on such aid.
Those comments were made in
response to a statement in Wash-
ington Monday by South Viet-
namese Ambassador Vu Van Thai
that the Saigon regime had de-
cided to establish "full and normal
diplomatic relations" with Israel
"as a result of negotiations with
Israeli diplomats just concluded
in Bangkok."
The officials declined to say
what the sraeli response had been
to the "feelers." But it was clear
that talks had taken place be-
tween official representatives of
the two governments.
The Israeli officials were em-
phatic in stating that the nego-
tiations did not cover aid to the
South Vietnam government in
establishing soldier-farmer units
in that country along the lines of
Israel's Nahal plan, to which the
South Vietnam envoy had refer-
red specifically in his Washington
statement.
When Indochina was partitioned
after the French defeat, Israel
recognized Laos and Cambodia,
but not South Vietnam. This was
in line with a standing procedure
against recognizing divided states.
This practice was rescinded later.
However, the issue has not come
up again until the current de-
velopment.
According to the ambassador,
until now the reason that formal
Israel-South Vietnamese diplo-
matic relations have not been
established arose from Arab
threats to recognize the Com-
munist-controlled National Lib-
eration Front and "our own
policy of avoiding entanglement
in the racism and religious fric-
tions of the Arabs and Israel."
"We have enough religious prob-
lems within Vietnam."
He added that his country
would also be willing to accept aid
from Egypt or other Arab states,
stating: "It is not our policy to
become involved in racist differ-
ences elsewhere. But let me make
clear that there is no unwillingness
on our part to gratefully accept
assistance from Israel I am con-
fident of a successful solution on
cooperation with I s r a e 1, and
pleased by America's constructive
help on this matter?'
Israeli diplomats overseas, par-
ticularly those in Asia, have been
instructed by the Israel govern-
ment not to involve themselves in
talks with South Vietnam repre-
sentatives because of Israel's re-
fusal to establish diplomatic rela-
tions with the Saigon regime.
Political sources here stressed
that Israel's stand was based on a
desire to avoid involvement in
Soviet-United States differences
over the South Vietnam situation.
Those sources recalled that in
the late 1950s Israel proposed dip-
lomatic relations to South Vietnam
and that Saigon then refused, ap-
parently out of fear of Arab
reprisal in the form of recogni-
tion of North Vietnam. Authori-
tative sources said that Israel now
did not intend to move away from
its nonrecognition stand because
of "outside pressure" which was
understood to be a reference to
the Johnson administration.
In recent months the United
States had increasingly pressed
Israel to aid the Saigon regime
within the framework of a Unit-
ed States effort to align world
support for South Vietnom. The
United States even included Is-
rael in a list published in Wash-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, March 25, 1966-5
ington of countries aiding South
Vietnam.
The sources here emphasized
that the only aid Israel has pro-
vided the Saigon regime was
medical help two years ago after
devastating floods.
(In Washington, State Depart-
ment spokesman Robert McClos-
key said Tuesday that the United
States government was aware of
the report that Saigon had de-
cided to establish diplomatic rela-
tions with Israel and commented
that the development of these re-
lations was a matter between
those two governments.
(U.S. officials, meanwhile, corn_
mented that the United States was
carefully observing the Israeli re-
sponse to the South Vietnamese
overtures, and was eager for an
expanded Israeli role in support
of South Vietnam.)
The issue continued to evoke
wide comment in the Israeli press.
Haaretz urged Israeli recognition
of South Vietnam on grounds that
"Israel should establish diplo-
matic relations with all countries
without consideration as to poli-
tical regimes or alignments."
The leftist Al Hamishmar and
Lamerhav strongly supported the
foreign ministry's stand and criti-
cized any Israel involvement in
the Saigon struggle.
Hayom, the organ of the Gahal
alignment of Liberals and .Herut,
argued against any aid with mili-
tary overtones such as the Nahal
program but supporting humani-
tarian aid.
Community Council Urges All Jews
to Set Aside 'Matzo of Oppression'
Gesture in Behalf of USSR Jews
All organizations affiliated with
the Jewish Community Council
have been asked to cooperate in an
effort this Passover on behalf of
the 3,000,000 Jews in the Soviet
Union. The Council forwarded to
affiliated organizations the recom-
mendation of the American Jewish
Conference on Soviet Jewry that
during the Passover observance
every seder set aside a matzo to
symbolize the injustices imposed
on Soviet Jewry. (See Page 19).
This special matzo, to be known
as the "matzo of oppression," will
serve as a reminder of American
Conservative Educators
Create Teaching Grants
KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y. (JTA)
—Educators in Conservative Juda-
ism voted to create a scholarship
fund to encourage promising He-
brew high school graduates and
college students to enter the Jew-
ish teaching profession.
The 150 delegates to the con-
vention of the Educators Assem-
bly of the United Synagogue of
America approved a Henry E.
Goldberg Scholarship Fund as part
of an ongoing effort to dramatize
the critical shortage of Jewish
teachers, and to help ease that
shortage.
DC Jewish Council
Hits Negro Groups for
Boycott Over Home Rule
ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Jew-
ish Comunity Council here criti-
cized Negro groups leading a boy-
cott of local merchants, many of
them Jews, as a protest against
the failure of Congress to vote
home rule for residents of the na-
tion's capitol.
The Council, at the same time,
reaffirmed its support of home rule
and condemned "the actions of
those who have unconscionably
blocked home rule for more than
a decade." The statement singled
out the city's Metropolitan Board
of Trade "in opposing genuine self-
government" for Washington resi-
dents and urged the board "to dis-
continue its opposition."
The statement added the coun-
cil "must disavow the present
boycott program by the Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Com-
mittee and the Free D.C. Move-
ment," and claimed the boy-
cott "coerces businessmen who
may have no views on home rule
and who have no voice in the
decisions of the board of trade,
to commit themselves in favor
of home rule by a threat of a
boycott if they do not so com-
mit themselves."
The council declared such actions
were "a violation" of the freedom
of such merchants "to have an
opinion on this sbject, or to have
no opinion, and an invasion of
their rights of privacy.'
Moreover, the statement said,
"this kind of program is irrelevant
and ineffective so far as the
achievement of home rule is con-
cerned because it is not directed
D1 A 5 YS
against the real targets.
Educators to Prepare
Texts on U.S. for Israel
NEW YORK (JTA) — Standing
committees of American and Israel
educators established at a confer-
ence in Jerusalem, will draft out-
lines of textbooks on Israel's
society for American schools and
on American society for Israeli
schools, it was announced here.
The anouncement was made by
Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, chair-
man of the American Histadrut
Cultural Exchange Institute under
whose auspices the conference
took place. The Department of
Higher Education of Histadrut,
Israeli Confederation of Labor,
was a co-sponsor.
Jewry's determination to continue
its efforts in behalf of their breth-
ren in the Soviet Union. Subjected
to disabilities and discrimination
which do not affect any other
major religious denomination in
the USSR, Jews in Russia are still
confronted with a government poli-
cy aimed at the cultural and reli-
gious extinction of Soviet Jewry.
An interpretive statement to be
read at the Seder service, prepared
by the American Jewish Confer-
ence on Soviet Jewry, has been dis-
tributed by the council. The con-
ference statement urges that we
"Think of Soviet Jews! They can-
not learn of their Jewish past and
hand it down to their children.
They cannot learn the languages
of their fathers . . . They cannot
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