20. Telegram From the Embassy in Israel to the Department of State 1

714. Herzog, Chief American Division Foreign Ministry, called on Embassy Counselor yesterday evening. Herzog indicated primary purpose his call was to reassure Embassy that in spite of Rafael’s comments (Embtel 6762) Ben Gurion’s position regarding negotiations with Egypt remained unchanged from that which he had set forth to Streibert and White (Embtel 6143), namely, that he was prepared to conduct earlier stages of any negotiations through an intermediary, but believed that before much progress could be made, direct talks would be necessary. Herzog added that Rafael’s comments did reflect GOI disappointment growing out of many failures in the past to make progress with Nasser through third parties and that Rafael was personally quite bitter at the failure of Jackson’s efforts immediately prior to the Khan Yunis incident August last.

Lawson
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 684A.86/1–1656. Top Secret; Alpha; Limit Distribution. Received at 7:21 a.m., January 17. Repeated to Cairo and London.
  2. Document 8.
  3. Vol. XIV, p. 871.