‘Jerusalem Must Remain Israel's Capital'
(Continued from Page 36)
peace with Jordan, was issued
by Mapam, the left-wing Israeli
political party which is a mem-
ber of the coalition government.
Under the Mapam plan, the west
bank of the Jordan River would
be given back to Jordan, but
"only after certain border ad-
justments." The unification of
Jerusalem, Mapam a d v i s e d,
should stay as it is now.
Jordan and Israel, the party also
stated, could solve the Arab re-
fugee problem. Part of the solu-
tion would call for Israel to per-
mit the return to the west bank
area of more Arabs among those
who had taken refuge in Jordan
during the June war, but only for
purposes of reunification of fami-
lies. The rest of the Arab refugees
would be settled in Jordan. In re-
turn, Jordan would be granted by
Israel an outlet to the Mediterran-
ean Sea.
As for Jerusalem, Mapam made
it clear, the reunified city must re-
main as Israel's capital. All the
plans would be however, subject
to direct peace negotiations be-
tween Israel and Jordan, Mapam
declared.
ItLgarding the Gaza Strip, Ma-
pam stated, that area, "which never
belonged to Egypt," should be re-
tained by Israel. The Sinai Penin-
sula and the (Wan Heights on
Syria's former .corder with Israel
should be demilitarized. Mapam
also reiterated its traditional in-
sistence on "neutralization of the
Middle East with the int,.ntion of
creating "a federal relation among
the countries in the region."
• • •
Minister of Transport Moshe
Carmel told the executive of the
Ahdut Avoda Party Tuesday
that while Israel must not waver
In its determination to achieve
peace, it must nevertheless pre-
pare for continuation of the
state of war and a resumption
of hostilities in the future.
The former brigadier general
spoke at the opening session of
the party's policy-makers who will
formulate its stand on the security
situation and on merger with the
Mapai Party of Prime Minister
Levi Eshkol and with the dissident
Israel Workers Party headed by
former Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion and Def ens e Minister
Moshe Dayan.
Carmel stressed his belief that
Israel must have borders that will
ensure its peace, security and de-
velopment.
Both Carmel and Minister of
Labor Yigal Allon, who spoke in
Jerusalem Tuesday night, advo-
cated an immediate start by Israel
on a model project for settlement
of the Arab refugee problems with-
out awaiting a peace settlement.
Both said establishment of two
or three villages for Arab refu-
gees of the 1948 War of Libera-
tion could set an example for
broader schemes. Both agreed
that the refugee problem as a
whole, however, could only be
settled with the full cooperation
of the Arab states and with inter-
national economic aid.
Gen. Dayan also discussed se-
curity Tuesday night in a speech
to the executive of his Rafi Party.
He warned that Israel had to stand
firm against any pressures—eco-
nomic or otherwise—and must not
retreat. He said that Israel must
continue to have a military hold on
the west bank although there could
be an agreement giving Jordan
special status there. He said, how-
ever, that since King Hussein was
unwilling to negotiate with Israel,
Israel would have to continue to
govern the area whether or not
the population liked it.
• • •
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (JTA)
— Spokesmen for the American,
British and Soviet delegations de-
clined Tuesday to comment on
widely-circulated reports that they
were meeting here in behind-the-
scenes efforts to secure big power
agreement on a resolution for an
Arab-Israel settlement in the Mid-
dle East.
A final meeting of the fifth
emergency session of the United
Nations General Assembly is to be
held before the opening of the
annual session of the assembly on
Sept. 19 and it is expected that
strong efforts will then be made to
produce an agreed resolution.
The tri-power talks were said to
be based on the American-Soviet
agreement reached between For-
eign Minister Andrei Gromyko and
Ambassador Arthur Goldberg at
the conclusion of the last emergen-
cy meeting of the assembly — an
agreement which the Arab states
summarily rejected. As Gromyko
and Egyptian Foreign Minister
Mahmoud Riad opened talks Tues-
day, Pravda, official organ of the
Communist Party, advised militant
Arabs that a new war with Israel
was not "the only way out" of their
troubles.)
The Syrian government, in a
letter Tuesday to Secretary-Gen-
eral U Thant, accused Israel of
blocking the return of Syrian
refugees to their homes in terri-
tory now occupied by Israel. The
Syrians asserted that Israel had
rejected efforts by the Interna-
tional Red Cross to secure the
return home of "these innocent
civilians expelled by force by
the Israeli invaders." The letter
said the Syrian refugees num-
bered 110,000 and denounced
Israeli attempts "to exploit
their sufferings."
The Syrian letter charged Israel
with violation of the Geneva
Agreement and resolutions of the
Security Council on the cease-fire
and humanitarian problems. The
Syrian government requested the
secretary general to investigate this
matter and report on it.
American aid to Arab refugees
since the end of the Arab-Israeli
war in June amounted to $9,900,-
000, it was reported this week by
the U.S. mission to the United Na-
tions.
A note detailing the contribu-
tions, sent to Secretary-General U
Thant, listed the following contri-
butions: 10,000 tents air-lifted to
Jordan; a donation of $2,000,000 to
the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refu-
gees; 24,000 metric tons of wheat
flour and 1,200 tons of vegetable
oils given to the same agency;
$140,000 in cash donated to the
American Red Cross; and $1,800,-
000 worth of food donated to vari-
ous American voluntary agencies
in the Middle East.
The note stated that the United
States is keeping the needs of the
refugees under constant review,
and that shipments of food for
needy persons in the Gaza Strip
and on the west bank is continu-
ing.
• • •
Israel Foreign Minister Abba
S. Eban told a press conference
in Jerusalem Tuesday night that
Israel's ideas and proposals for
an interim solution of the prob-
lem of the Arab refugees from
the 1948 war will be disclosed
to the United Nations General
Assembly when the refugee ques-
tion is discussed.
These proposals, he said, would
concern the refugees now in terri-
tories held by Israel. A general
solution of the refugee problem, he
said, would be possible only on a
regional basis, with the coopera-
tion of the Arab states.
Eban asserted that the position
taken by the Arab leaders at their
Khartoum conference, which he
summarized as no recognition of
Israel, no negotiations and no
peace, emphasized Israel's need
and right to maintain her present
positions. He said Israel's evacua-
tion in 1957 of the Gaza Strip and
the Sinai Peninsula had been a
"tragic error" and he affirmed
that Israel would not repeat this
mistake by returning territories to
states that continued to assert their
belligerency and intention to
destroy her.
(In a reference to the Suez
Canal situ a ti on, Eban said
that, for the present, there was
an agreement of mutuality between
Egypt and Israel on its use as part
of the cease-fire agreement. If
Egypt should remove the physical
obstacles she placed in the canal
and allowed international shipping
to resume, he said, this principle
would have to be maintained.
(Eban did not clarify this state-
ment but his aides later said that
he meant that if Egypt did not
permit Israeli ships to use the
canal, Israel would not permit
Egyptian ships to pass through.)
Reopening of the port of Gaza
mainly to enable the export of
citrus fruit grown in the Gaza
Strip is being considered by
Israeli authorities. The proposed
move would reduce transit ex-
penses for supplies for Arab
refugees cared for by the United
Nations Relief and Works Agen-
cy. The supplies are now shipped
by way of Ashdod, entailing
many extra miles of transporta-
tion costs.
Israeli health authorities have
launched an anti-polio campaign
among the inhabitants of the strip
following the discovery of a num-
ber of polio cases among children
in the area. The health drive was
taken as a precautionary measure
in view of the fact that Gaza Strip
residents are now free to travel
across Israel to the west bank.
• • *
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Yugo-
slavian Foreign Minister Marko
Nikezic conferred with Secretary
of State Dean Rusk after visiting
President Johnson to deliver a mes-
sage from Yugoslavia's President
Tito, dealing with the latter's ef-
forts to work out a settlement of
the Israeli-Arab crisis.
The Tito message concerned a
proposal that a resolution be back-
ed in the next session of the
United Nations General Assembly,
calling on Israel to withdraw its
armed forces from captured Arab
territories and implying that the
Arab countries note the fact of Is-
rael's existence.
(Nikezic also met with Secre-
tary-General U Thant at the Unit-
ed Nations headquarters in New
York and handed him a copy of
President Tito's letter which he
presented this week to President
Johnson dealing with solution to
the problems of the Middle Fast.
Similar letters were delivered in
Paris, Moscow and London.)
George Christian, White House
press secretary, declined to dis-
close the contents of the Tito mes-
sage, but said: "We are interested
in any effort to arrange a durable
peace in the Midcre East" The
meetings with Nikezic were
described by both the White House
and the State Department as "part
of a continuing exchange with a
number of interested governments
on the current situation in the
Middle East, in an effort to bring
about a just and peaceful solution."
The Yugoslavian foreign minis-
ter said here he would not charac-
terize the message he delivered to
President Johnson from President
Tito as containing "new proposals,"
nor would he describe his confer-
ence with Secretary Rusk as offer-
ing any fresh approaches to the
situation in the Middle East. The
meeting, he told newsmen, touch-
ed on various "ideas and esti-
mates" of the Middle East prob-
lem.
Attending the White House meet-
ing with the Yugoslav foreign
minister were Special Assistant to
the President Walt Rostow, As-
sistant Secretary of State Lucius
Battle, and the new Yugoslavian
ambassador, Bogdan Crnobrnja.
The meeting with Rusk took place
at a breakfast this week, lasting
an hour and a half. A spokesman
for the State Department said "we
will study the viewpoint expressed
by Yuogslavia and respond at a
later date."
• • •
LONDON (JTA) — A long per-
iod of cold war between the Arab
states and Israel—with the even-
tual possibility of a partial thaw—
was foreseen by seasoned Middle
East watchers here following the
Arab heads of state conference at
Khartoum, the Sudan. The confer-
ence wound up with an agreement
whereby oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Ku-
wait and Libya would chip in some
$392,000,000 to bail war-bankrupt
Jordan and Egypt out of their cri-
tical economic situation.
The "have" shiekdoms, for their
part, were relieved of moral obli-
quy for continuing to receive
royalties for exported oil from the
"western imperialists," since the
conference accepted the principle
that each Arab state was at liberty
to decide how to deal with sugges-
tions for oil embargoes and other
economic measures. This meant,
in effect, that these nations would
be free to continue "business as
usual" with their good customers.
Britain and the United States,
whom they had accused of impli-
cation in Israeli "aggression."
There were many discordant as-
pects of the conference—particu-
larly when the leftist Syrian re-
gime—one of the most militantly
anti-Israel Arab nations—boycotted
the proceedings, earning the re-
sentment of the other Arab states.
But the conference did indicate
that it was taking steps to end the
civil war in Yemen, in which, in
effect, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are
engaged in military action against
the other, since each supports op-
posing sides. The Yemen ruler
voiced angry protest against this
decision, which, it was hoped,–
would enable Egypt to liquidate
a costly adventure.
It was reported in Damascus
that an emergency congress held
by the Syrian Socialist Baath
Party, declared that only "a war
of liberation" could ev:ct the Is-
raelis from conquered Arab areas.
The meeting decided that Syria
should boycott the Khartoum meet-
ing but should cooperate only with
the "progressive Arab regimes."
The Baathists consider Algeria
and Egypt as "progressive."
(It was confirmed this week that,
for "attempting to stage a miltary
comeback," the deputy supreme
commander of the Egyptian armed
forces, UAR's former Vice Presi-
dent Abdel Hakim Amer, will be
courtmartialed, together with 50
other top Egyptian generals.)
The largest legislative assembly
in the world is the National
People's Congress of China (main-
land). The third Congress elected
in September 1964, has 3,040 mem-
bers.
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