Defense Minister Moshe Dayan implied in an election speech here last night that he favored Israel’s annexation of large areas of the Arab territories it occupied during the June, 1967 Six-Day War. Gen. Dayan spoke of “strategic security borders” controlled by Israeli forces, not a United Nations peace-keeping force.
He said that both the Syrian Golan Heights and Sharm el-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula were needed to secure such borders. He referred to the Sinai strong point as a “Jewish Gibraltar” guarding the Straits of Tiran which give access to Israel’s port of Eilat. He did not discuss the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
Gen. Dayan’s remarks repeated a stand he took last August which brought him into conflict with Premier Golda Meir and Foreign Minister Abba Eban. At the time, he insisted on the inclusion in the Labor party platform of a plank that would put the party on record as favoring Israel’s retention of large parts of the occupied territories.
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.
