UN General Assembly
1977

120. For a year now both problems have gone through a difficult stage. The General Assembly last year was not able to reach positive resolutions likely to open up the way to settlement of the problems. The reason was that the last Israeli Government refused to undertake any action on the grounds that Israeli legislative elections were near, and that we heeded the recommendations of those who wanted us to observe restraint, to wait for the elections to take place, and for a Labour Government to emerge from the elections which would have been strongly supported by the voters and which would be sure to take matters seriously in hand and to heed the voice of reason. We were in no way convinced that the future Government would in any way change the attitude of the Israeli State. On the contrary we were certain that that was simply a manoeuvre to gain time, and to get through a difficult political moment when world opinion was becoming increasingly concerned.