Diplomats Discuss Mideast Problems

The British "did everything they could to sabotage the decision" of the United Nations (U.N.) to create a Jewish state in Palestine, Walter Eytan, former Israeli ambassador to France, told an audience of approximately 70 people at Phillips Brooks House.

During the speech, Eytan described the events which led to the creation of Israel, beginning with the Biltmore program of 1932, which proposed the idea of a Jewish state, and ending with the declaration of Israeli Independence on May 14, 1947.

Eytan recounted the difficulties Zionist groups, especially the Jewish Agency, had while working to get the resolution passed calling for the creation of a Jewish state.

Sovereignty Doesn't Come Easy

In particular, Eytan criticized the attitude of the British government. He said that, besides the Arab states, the people who made it hardest to implement the U.N. resolution to create a Jewish state in Palestine "were the British, who in their heart didn't like the U.N. decision."

Eytan compared the difficulty of getting the resolution passed to the difficulty recently encountered by President Carter in trying to get the Panama Canal treaty ratified in the United States Senate.

Eytan fielded questions from the audience, but refused to comment on the current situation in the Middle East.

The speech was one in a series of talks in the Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel Society Colloquium on "Israel at 30."