FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On December 12, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that, announcing the details of an agreement reached between the government and Palestine Potash Ltd., representatives of both parties told a press conference in Jerusalem that operations at the southern plant of the Dead Sea Works would be resumed as early as possible. The agreement called for the setting up of a still unnamed Israel company to assume full obligations and holdings of Palestine Potash Ltd.
In Paris, the UN General Assembly was asked to vote for a threeyear $250 million aid program for the relief and reintegration of the Palestine Arab refugees. The recommendation was made by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in a special report on the assistance it was giving to an estimated 877,000 persons displaced by the Arab-Israeli war.
Israeli’s reply to the Soviet note on the establishment of the Western Defense Pact delivered by Dr. Shmuel Eliashiv, minister to the Soviet Union. It was understood that the note would not be made public while talks on this matter were still proceeding.
The US State Department announced an interim agreement to make available immediately up to $25,730,000 for economic assistance to Israel.
50 YEARS AGO
On December 12, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that Jordan said it opposed the entry of Arab forces into its territory, unless other forces were also placed on the Syrian and Egyptian frontiers with Israel. This statement was made after the conclusion of the Arab League Defense Council meeting in Cairo which stated that the Jordanian government had agreed to allow Saudi and Iraqi troops into Jordan within a two-month period.
In New York, foreign minister Abba Eban told the press that the UN should give more attention to the problems that caused the recent Israeli retaliatory raid on Jordan. Replying to a question on a TV program, Eban said the only alternative to the attack – no action at all – would be more dangerous than the attack itself.
The Post’s editorial said that the meeting of the Defense Council of the Arab League, which ended its deliberations in Cairo three days earlier, had settled nothing and the struggle for power in the Arab world continued unabated. Hardly 24 hours after it ended, all parties concerned retreated to their previous conditions. Jordan stressed that it would allow the entry of foreign troops only if troops were moved also to Israel’s borders in Sinai, Syria and Lebanon.
25 YEARS AGO
On December 12, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians remained deadlocked on the shape of their talks for a second day running. Israel did hold separate sets of bilateral talks with the Syrian and Lebanese delegations. No progress was reported and the Israeli delegation was expected to decide how much longer it would stay there. So far none of the Arab delegations had agreed to move the talks to the Middle East or its vicinity.
In the corridors of the US State Department, the Jordanian delegation and top Israeli negotiator Elyakim Rubinstein continued what became known as “corridor diplomacy.” They traded written proposals on how to break the impasse. At the core of the dispute, Israel was insisting that the concept of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation not be discarded. “This must be a permanent framework,” a senior Israeli official said.