320/1–551: Telegram
The United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin) to the Secretary of State
Delga 489. Rafael1 and Lourie2 (Israeli delegation) called on Ross late yesterday afternoon. They had been in touch with Eban3 who wanted to raise the question of tabling the draft Israeli resolution (Delga 472 [474]).4 Ross dissuaded them from this action on ground (a) it would confuse an already confused situation and (b) taken by itself the Israeli resolution did not in our view meet requirements of present situation. Ross then gave them copy of our memorandum5 which they read. They were not particularly surprised. They questioned whether our present views represented hard and fast decision to table willy-nilly a condemnatory resolution or whether our minds were still open to possibility some intermediate step. Ross emphasized our primary objective maintaining unity of free world in UN and indicated that for this reason our minds were by no means closed on possibility of further intermediate step. On the other hand, the course of action which should be taken by the UN in the light of the current situation seemed to us very clear and that we could not with any equanimity contemplate taking an intermediate step if there were [Page 25] not, as a minimum, a very clear understanding that delegations would be committed in the event of failure of such intermediate step to proceed with course we considered essential. Israelis found no particular difficulty with this approach but did not commit themselves.
They reported that following call on Gross and Ross the other day, they had called on Jacob Malik and had shown him copy of their draft resolution. They reported they felt Malik’s attitude was by no means a closed-door attitude. He emphasized very strongly the necessity of withdrawal of forces as being the first step in peaceful settlement of the Korean issue.
Aside from comments on the immediate situation in the UN, Israelis reported that Malik was talking very tough. He said that if the US and others were proceeding to mobilize and build up strength, others could do the same and this might inevitably lead to a clash. Re Korea, Israelis reported Malik observed that US had chosen method of force to settle Korean problem and that perhaps we should leave it to force to decide this issue.
- Gideon Rafael, Alternate Representative of Israel at the United Nations.↩
- Arthur Lourie, Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel at the United Nations.↩
- Abba Eban, Israeli Ambassador in the United States and Permanent Representative of Israel at the United Nations.↩
- See footnote 4, p. 16.↩
- See footnote 1, p. 15.↩