Office of the Historian

35. Message From the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Wilcox)1

New York, January 24, 1957.

Gadel 1162 received after despatch Delga 571,3 572, and 575.4 Believe Department should reconsider view expressed in paragraph 4 Gadel 116 which means that we would be treating sanctions against Israel as a quid pro quo for enforcing Security Council decisions regarding Egyptian attitude towards Israeli passage through canal.

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The clear implication of this is that a country (in this case Israel) is entitled to take the law into its own hands, unilaterally violating the Charter, and violating a General Assembly resolution overwhelmingly calling for withdrawal of forces in order to implement a previous decision of the Security Council.

The argument that we have not supported sanctions against USSR in case of Hungary cannot be used to support decision not to invoke sanctions against Israel, since it is clear that sanctions against USSR would be ineffective whereas sanctions against Israel would be effective.

Present outlook is that resolution on sanctions will pass, even with our opposition or abstention. We will then be confronted with a decision far harder and more difficult than we confront now and will possibly have to support the United Nations.

Israel should, therefore, be told now that she must change her present policy which is so much against her own best interests and that United States, in view of our consistent policy since October 29 would feel constrained to support a proper resolution on sanctions. A change in Israeli policy may bring about a change in Egyptian policy (Fedayeen raids and freedom of transit), but I very much doubt any of the things Israel desires can be achieved if we take the position suggested in paragraph 4 of Gadel 116 which is very close to the present Israeli position.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 684A.86/1–2457. Confidential. A covering memorandum from Wilcox to Dulles reads: “The attached message came by telephone from Ambassador Lodge this afternoon. He apparently feels very strongly that the Arab-Asian group will either put forth a resolution calling for sanctions against Israel, or else will attempt to amend any resolution that we might put in so as to include such a proviso. In such an event he believes that the sentiment in New York is such that we would have a great deal of difficulty defeating a move to impose sanctions.” The covering memorandum bears the notation: “Sec Saw”.

    Lodge repeated his message in a letter to Wilcox, dated January 24, which arrived in the Department of State on January 30.

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  2. Document 31.↩
  3. Document 32.↩
  4. See footnote 2, ibid., regarding Delgas 572 and 575.↩