Defense Minister Moshe Dayan tonight advocated that the entire West Bank of the Jordan occupied by Israel during the six-day war with the Arabs be regarded as part of Israel.
Speaking at a Rafi Party rally in the municipal basketball stadium here, Dayan emphasized that he was expressing his opinion not as the defense minister but as a member of the Rafi Party. He said that there is now an historic opportunity to change Israel’s borders which were set as a result of the 1948 War for Independence.
"The Golan Heights in Syria and the Suez Canal," he said, "are very important, but they cannot be compared to Israel proper — Israel of which Hebron, Jericho, Shilo and Bethel are part and parcel." People who recognize the Book of the Bible and the Nation of the Bible must know that the Land of the Bible goes with it — the land of our forefathers, the land of the dreams of generations of Jews — the dream that came true in our time. Such an opportunity should not be wasted."
Former Premier David Ben-Gurion, at the same rally, called for every effort to increase immigration from the free world as the only solution to the problem of settling the enlarged Israel which had resulted from the recent Arab-Israel war.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
