Letter from Seán Murphy to John J. Hearne (Washington DC)
(Confidential) (Copy)

With reference to our Cable No. 78¹ instructing you to inform the Israeli Ambassador that there is no change in our attitude on the question of de jure recognition of Israel and that, consequently, an exchange of diplomatic representatives cannot at present be contemplated, the Minister wished me to inform you that our reasons for this decision are based on the following considerations:-

1. Such a move would be very displeasing to the Vatican whose attitude still is that no solution of the Holy Places problem short of international territorial control of Jerusalem would be acceptable. The Israeli Ambassador’s statement to you that his Government now favours ‘international supervision of the Holy Places’ is rather misleading in as much as Israel has always offered to accept international supervision of the Holy Places as distinct from international control of Jerusalem.
2. Though UNO has long since abandoned the resolution providing for international control of Jerusalem and, indeed, seems to have given up hope of finding any solution to the problem, we must keep in mind the possibility that the question will be raised again and the prominent part that Ireland could play in any such discussion. De jure recognition of Israel at the very moment of our entry into UNO would weaken our position in this respect.
3. Apart altogether from the question of the Holy Places an exchange of diplomatic representatives with Israel at a time when a full scale Arab-Israeli war is threatening could only be construed as taking sides with Israel in this complex problem. This, no doubt, is the reason for the Israeli démarche to you.