UN General Assembly
1971

150. He went to considerable lengths in his thinly disguised attempt to sell and rationalize expansion. During the past quarter-century the Israelis claimed that Israel harbored no territorial ambitions and that its only aim was to arrive at a lasting peace. Reading Mr, Eban's statement, this is something which belongs to the past and has no relevance to the present or the future. The basic Israeli thesis is now undisguisedly that, peace or no peace, negotiation or no negotiation, territories acquired in 1967 will not be relinquished. This thesis runs through the whole of Mr. Eban's speech, in which he attempts to soften up the world Organization to accept it. 151. Where would negotiation lead to when the official Israeli position is that, at the minimum, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Sharm El Sheikh are not negotiable and that in the rest of the occupied areas more would be annexed on the pretext of security or sentimental reasons? Yet, the Israeli spokesman speaks of negotiations without preconditions.