Jan Betlach stated that on October 10, 1960, then Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir offered Arab states negotiations with Prime Minister David Ben Gurion in New York or elsewhere, without preconditions. According to his contribution, she proposed discussions on peace, or at least on a non-aggression pact, specifically reaching out to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jordanian King Hussein, and the Lebanese Prime Minister. Betlach added that Israel, at that time, had a width of only 15 kilometers at its narrowest point due to the 1949 armistice, and the Arab states rejected the offer. One Western European delegate reportedly told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he hadn't heard a more reasonable proposal in a long time. Betlach wrote that Saudi representative Ahmad Shukairy used Nazi-related expressions twelve times in his subsequent reply and compared Meir to the Nazis. Five days later, according to his contribution, Nasser declared that Israel was trying to deceive world public opinion and that Egypt would never recognize the Jewish state. Shukairy later became the first chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and drafted its charter, which, according to Betlach, rejected a Jewish state in any borders. Betlach concluded that Meir was only requesting a meeting but was rejected and made the target of comparisons to perpetrators of the murder of European Jews. #historie #BlízkýVýchod #mír (translated)
