466. Telegram From the Embassy in Israel to the Department of State1
635. With reference Embtel 633,2 British Ambassador has called on me to explain background Myerson’s comments in New York [Page 881] concerning territorial concessions in the Negev. Nicholls said that he called on Myerson on November 23 (in her capacity as Acting Foreign Minister) to urge that the Israel Government abandon its adamant position on territorial adjustments. He told her that if real progress was to be made toward a settlement, Israel would have to be more realistic on the territorial question. When Myerson inquired as to what specific concessions he thought Israel should make, he answered that he did not know but would illustrate the principle. He asked whether Israel would reject a proposal that at a certain point Arab farmers on the Jordan side be united with their water supply a hundred meters inside Israel territory. When Myerson replied in the negative, the British Ambassador pointed out that if someone on the other hand demanded of Israel a transfer of land ten miles inside her territory it would obviously be rejected. Through this process a settlement of outstanding territorial problems might be reached.
Nicholls said that when the Foreign Ministry’s British desk officer, who was present at the meeting, brought to the British Embassy a draft of the memorandum of conversation, he was horrified to find himself quoted as urging the cession of a 200 meter strip of territory. He requested that the record be corrected.
Comment: Although would agree that before real progress can be made settlement negotiations, it will be necessary for appropriate intermediaries to sit down with principal Israel political leaders, possibly the triumvirate of Ben-Gurion,Sharett and Eshkol, to discuss a well-conceived plan. I am most dubious that the British can serve effectively in this role. Some Israel leaders, such as Ben-Gurion, really believe that the United Kingdom wants a hold on a portion of the Negev either for airbases or for land connection between Akaba and Suez. Others, who do not go along with this thesis, are convinced the British position in the Arab world is so vital to them that their mediation would be subject to prejudice. The foregoing considerations probably account for Sharett’s view that the United Kingdom had disqualified itself as a result of Eden’s address of November 9.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 684A.86/12–2255. Top Secret; Alpha; Limit Distribution. Received at 5:22 a.m., December 23.↩
- In telegram 635, December 22, the Embassy in Tel Aviv summarized Israeli press treatment of Minister of Labor Myerson’s speech on December 19 in New York in which she asserted that the British Ambassador had hinted to her that the United Kingdom hoped Israel would be willing to make territorial concessions in the Negev as part of a peace settlement. (Ibid., 641.84A/12–2255)↩