Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XVIII, Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1964–1967

251. Telegram From the Embassy in Israel to the Department of State¹

Tel Aviv, November 10, 1965.

498. Fatah. Embtel 485, 488, 493.²

1. Saying she had reserved most important point for last of several she raised with me yesterday (reported separately), Mrs. Meir referred to U.S. public statement re Israeli Lebanon exchanges over Fatah incursions.³ She described statement as “a plague on both your houses” and reiterated complaint that we had not singled out Fatah as cause of whole trouble. She said other govts had diplomatically expressed opposition to Israeli raids but U.S. only one to do so publicly. She went on to note two subsequent Jordanian Fatah incidents (house at Givtat Yeshayahu and mining of railway) in which by miracle no one had been hurt, and asked what we would suggest GOI do about them. She contended that evenhandedness of U.S. statement on Lebanon had encouraged Fatah to latter incursions and that, regardless whether Jordan and Lebanon trying to supress organization, U.S. equating incursions with Israeli countermeasures tended make Fatah believe U.S. sympathetic.

2. I said I had no suggestions other than increased police measures and use established international machinery. I added continued Jordanian incidents confirmed our view that GOI warning reprisals not effective. I said further that such reprisals removed Israel from status of injured party and made broad U.S. statements inevitable. She replied that she not interested in being injured party, she did not wish to be injured at all. She remarked that railway incident further instance of lack of Jordanian cooperation in that Jordanians declined follow investigation beyond border although detonator wires led forty yards into Jordan.

3. Finally, she said PM Eshkol before leaving for vacation today had asked her to call me in to make foregoing points. She described him as much disturbed by this further Fatah activity and by the potential consequences of blowing up a passenger train which this time averted by accidental discovery of explosives.

Barbour

1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, POL 32–1 ISR–JORDAN. Confidential. No time of transmission is given on the telegram, which was received at 5:55 a.m. Repeated to Amman, Beirut, Jerusalem, and USUN.
2. Telegrams 485, 488, and 493 from Tel Aviv, November 7, 8, and 9, respectively, reported on a November 7 explosion near the Jordanian border and the discovery on November 8 of an explosive charge under the railway to Jerusalem near the Jordanian border. (All ibid.)
3. Reference is apparently to a November 1 statement by the Department of State, made in response to press inquiries about the Israeli retaliatory raid of October 28–29 against Lebanon, which reads in part: “We deplore the resort to force by any party whether by private groups or by governments.” (Ibid., POL 32–1 ISR–LEB)