Party Scurries to Win Approval of Golda Meir by Coalition Partners central committee to decide and said he would accept its deci- TEL AVIV—Leaders of the Israel sion, although he did not support Labor Party plunged into negotia- any of the candidates mentioned. tions with their partners in the na- "But I do not disqualify Golda or tional unity coalition Monday in an Allon from the premiership," he effort to persuade them to accept said. the leadership of Mrs. Golda Meir, Gen. Dayan, however, made no whom they nominated Monday secret of his bitterness at the night to succeed the late Levi party's negative attitude toward Eshkol as Israel's prime minister. him. "I have not felt at home in The vote for Mrs. Meir, who will the party. I feel on its fringes," be 71 in May, was 40-0 with seven he said, adding, "As far as I am abstentions. Endorsement of her by concerned, it is not too late to the Labor Party's central com- make a new start." mittee today appeared a virtual He chided the party leadership certainty. Mrs. Meir said she which he claimed considered all would announce in a few days cabinet members representatives whether she would accept the nomination but remarked pointedly of the party, ."apart from Moshe Dayan who, I am told, is the rep- that she had never in the past failed to heed a party call. Observ- resentative of the street and the ers here said Mrs. ,Meir was with- choice of the merry wives of Wind- holding her final 'acceptance until sor." Gen. Dayan's reference was her supporters co d determine the to the petitions signed on street extent of the sup t she would corners and the demonstrations by receive from the of er coalition women on the eve of the Six-Day War demanding his inclusion in the partners. government. • The most important of these is Gen. Dayan's appointment as de- Gahal, the Herut-Liberal party fense minister was a response to alignment, which is the second popular demand during the May largest party in the coalition put 1967 crisis. It was vigorously op- together by Eshkol during the posed at the time by Mrs. Meir. crisis of May 1967. Defense Min- Nevertheless it is believed that she ister Moshe Dayan, a key figure would invite him to participate in in the cabinet, said his participa- a government under her leader- tion in a government beaded by ship. Mrs. Meir was conditional on its The Labor Party Central Com- inclusion of Gahal. mittee was scheduled to meet to- The continuity of the national day, and by next Sunday it is ex- unity government appeared as- pected to submit the name of Mrs. sured as Gahal announced that it Meir to President Zalman Shazar favored preservation of the present as prime minister-designate. coalition lineup Wednesday. The New York Times expressed (But Gahal insisted on and won concern editorially Wednesday an Israel Labor Party agreement that the postponement of a show- to a formalization of the Knesset down in Israel's leadership strug- decision of Nov. 13, 1967, that the gle through the designation of present cease-fire situation will be Mrs. Meir as interim prime min- preserved until a permanent peace ister might also postpone for is achieved. eight months "any possibility of (The Gahal ministers, in confer- fruitful negotiations for a Mid East peace settlement." ences with their Labor Party col- leagues, demanded that a cabinet It noted that this question gained committee be set up to write a urgency from the "cautious con- new basic platform reflecting the clusion" of President Nixon Tues- cease-fire situation and stressing day night that the Soviet Union that permanent peace can emerge was "genuinely interested" in the only from direct negotiations be- search for Mid East peace along tween the parties concerned. with the United States, France and (Such a peace, the document will Britain. state, must include a formal treaty The editorial said that "the im- and secure and agreed borders. pending election undoubtedly will The Gahal leadership exacted this make it difficult for the next Is- move as a guarantee that the will raeli government to make unpopular of the Knesset will be observed. decisions. Public opinion in Israel They pointed out that the previous gives every sign of being more platform of the Eshkol government intransigent about compromise had reflected the pre-June 1967 with the Arabs than is most of the situation. The Labor Party minis- country's responsible leadership. ters agreed, and none of the other And concessions going beyond any coalition partners raised objec- Israel's leaders now are prepared tions.) to make probably will be required The Gahal move in effect also to achieve a settlement." endorsed the candidacy of Mrs. An interim government headed Meir. by an Allon or Dayan, the edi- Other meetings were held torial noted, would be little dis- Tuesday and Wednesday with the ,41osed to risk its future by explor- leaders of Mapam which recently ing compromise solutions before aligned itself with the Labor Party, the elections. But a government the independent Libe r als, the Na- headed by Mrs. Golda Meir, tional Religious Party and the "whose ambitions for permanent Poalei Aguda Israel. All indica- leadership—at 70—can be consid- tions were that these parties would ered minimal," should, it said, "be accept Mrs. Meir in the interests of a little freer to move into useful national unity. negotiations if there is any prom- Mrs. Meir would head an interim ising initiative from the Arab government until next November's nations or the Jarring mission." national elections. Her candidacy The editorial endorsed the po- was urgently supported by Labor sition taken by former Under- Party leaders to avert a showdown secretary of State Eugene Rostow struggle between the two men con- placing responsibility for the sidered the most serious contend- present stalemate on Egypt. It ers for the premiership, Gen. asserted that Nasser's expressed Dayan and Allon. Mrs. Meir de- hope was that the Nixon regime clared that her choice was Allon, would repeat the Eisenhower who was made deputy prime min- policy of 1957 and force Israel's ister by Eshkol last year and was withdrawal without a true settle- widely regarded as his heir ap- ment. parent. Gen. Dayan, considered to "But that arrangement led to be the most popular public figure the 1967 war, and Washington is in Israel today, lacks political unlikely to fall into the same trap," backing among the Labor Party the editorial declared. "Ambassa- leadership and its rank and file. dor Jarring is right to begin in Gen. Dayan abstained in the Cairo today his renewed effort on vote on Mrs. Meir Monday night the ground to find a basis for a because, he declared, "I see no settlement. If Israel's new govern- point in a negative vote under ment is to face up to the difficult existing conditions." He acknowl- territorial choices it must make edged the right of the party's to achieve a settlement, a con- (Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News) 40 Friday, March 7, 1969 — vincing offet of a lasting peace will have to come from Cairo first." Mrs. Meir's policy as prime min- ister of Israel will be "fully as tough and unbending as that of the late Levi Eshkol" and will be based on the thesis that "the only possible road to peace is by direct negotiations with the Arab states," the Washington Post reported Wed- nesday from Jerusalem. Post correspondent Alfred Friendly, writing of an interview with Mrs. Meir also declared that she "ruled out today any chance of an acceptable solution to the Middle East conflict emerging from discussions by the Big Pow- ers." Mrs. Meir was asked about the possibility of the Soviet Union agreeing on terms acceptable to Israel and inducing Egypt to take them as well. She was quoted in reply: "It will never happen. If Russia were capable of preparing a peace plan acceptable to us, and had enough influence on President Nasser to get him to agree, then it has enough influence on him to say,`For God's sake, sit down with the Israelis and make peace di- rectly.' " Mrs. Meir said, in the course of the interview, that she did not see any new or different ap- proaches Israel might take at this time, but she rejected the contention that for Israel to cling to its present set of demands would inevitably lead to war. "It could," she pointed out, "lead to continuation of the status quo, or to peace." She stressed that the Arabs had not yet concluded they were pre- pared to live in peace with Israel and accept Israel as a state with a right to exist. Until they do so, she told the interviewer, Israel had no alternative to its present course. Mrs. Meir returned repeatedly in the course of the interview with Friendly to the theme that there could be no peace until the Arabs were ready for it. She reminded Friendly that "For 20 years now, we've been asking one question: `Are the Arabs prepared to live with us?' We've received no an- swer. You say Jordan is? Well, if so, let the Jordanians say it pub- licly. We don't expect them to agree with all our proposals or say yes to everything we put before them. But let them meet us, sit down at a table with us." She asserted that neither King Hussein nor Nasser had prepared his people to hear them say that he had concluded to meet with the Israelis to negotiate an honorable peace. She remarked that "You can't make peace underground. How else can there be peace than by direct talks?" Mrs. Meir stressed again that "As long as the Arabs won't sit down with us, that means they don't accept our existence." If she becomes prime minister, Mrs. Meir said, she would make one condition "absolutely essential: Nasser must conclude that peace is not something he can give to Israel as a luxury or fulfillment of its need, but as something at least as necessary for his people as for the Israelis. It's not a present for him to give us. It's something that his children, the children in the Nile Valley, need as much as we." World Aviation Body Considers Ways of Furthering Safety From Terrorists- MONTREAL (JTA) —The Inter- national Civil Aviation Organiza- tion (ICAO) met Monday behind closed doors with the purpose of devising machinery to put an end to unlawful interference with civil aviation. A decision on a proposal spon- sored by the United States and eight other countries is expected March 17 after a legal subcommit- tee report is presented to the ICAO Council, according to Walter Bin- aghi, ICAO president. The proposal deals with security of airports, safety of flights and return of hi- jackers. ICAO is affiliated with the .413ited Nations. The Swiss government has offi- cially protested to the governments of Syria, Jordan and Lebanon over the Feb. 18 machinegun attack by Arab terrorists on an El Al Airliner at Zurich Airport, and asked them to take steps "to prevent any new violations of Swiss territory." The Swiss authorities also for- mally "complained" to Israel that the El Al security guard, 22-year- old Mordechai Rachamim, had vio- lated Swiss sovereignty by firing a weapon at the Arab attackers. Rachamim, a former paratrooper, killed one of the terrorists. He is being held for trial as are the three surviving attackers. The protests were handed to the three Arab chiefs of mission by Swiss Foreign Minister Willy Spuhler. The ministry said the terrorists admitted to Swiss au- thorities that they had been trained in Jordan and that some of them left from Syria to carry ont the attack in Zurich. Lebanon was involved because Beirut radio broadcast a statement by the Popular Front for the Lib- eration of Palestine claiming re- sponsibility for the attack. In a note handed to Swiss auth- orities Monday, Israel said that Rachamim was ordered to protect the plane from the inside, but when the plane and passengers were at- tacked, be acted in defense of the passengers and crew and in self- defense when he assaulted the ter- rorists. His action, forcing their retreat, saved many lives, Israel said. In Bonn, West Germany's Inter- ior Minister Ernst Benda told the Bundestag (lower house) Monday that adequate security measures were in force to prevent attacks on El Al airliners using German air- :: ports. El Al planes land at Munich and Frankfurt. Canada Urged to OK Bill Against Hate Propaganda OTTAWA (JTA) — A Canadian Jewish Congress delegation, citing the growing incidence of racial and religious strife in North America and other parts of the world, has urged a committee of the Canadian Senate to approve a bill that would outlaw hate propaganda in Canada. The CJC delegation said that anti-Semitism in Canada was a sporadic but minor problem and claimed that its decline in recent Years was attributable in large measure to anti-hate legislation adopted by nine of Canada's 10 provinces. But it cited the religious conflict that erupted recently in Northern Ireland, the deteriorating Negro- white and Negro-Jewish relation- ships in New York City and signs of "turbulence" in Canada as rea- sons why a strong measure should be enacted on a national level. Saul Hayes, executive vice presi- dent of the CJC, warned that there was an imminently explosive situa- tion involving Negroes and Indians, and that hate propaganda unless outlawed, would add fuel to the eventual conflict. One member of the committee, Sen. David Walker, suggested that the proposed bill was "op- pressive." Louis Herman, na- tional chairman of the CJC-Bnai Brith community relations com- mittee, said the bill had numer- ous safeguards to assure freedom of expression. The action was urged in a brief submitted by the United Council for Human Rights to Armand Mal- tais, Quebec solicitor-general. The brief recommended measures to eliminate discrimination in em- ployment, housing, public places and in other fields. It said, regard- ing hate propaganda, that "it is inconceivable that the Quebec gov- ernment would do nothing to com- bat publicity or propaganda meant to promote or inspire discrimina- tion." It referred specifically to such allegedly fascist parties as the Unite National and the neo-Nazi Guy de la Riviere group which operate in Quebec and which "may without the least trouble mislead the population of Quebec through hateful and false statements." Cleveland Newspaperman (Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News) CLEVELAND—Hyman Horowitz, editor of the now defunct Cleveland Jewish World, a Yiddish daily newspaper, died here Feb. 21 at age 75. Also contributor to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and to periodicals in Yiddish and Russian on Jewish topics, Mr. Horowitz had retired in 1966 as a Cleveland assistant police prosecutor. He was a mem- ber of the Jewish Community Federation Board of Trustees and THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS the Cleveland Zionist Society. Newest photograph of Golda Meir, showing her waiting for a bus on a Tel Aviv street.