Dayan Urges U.S. Not to Sell out Israel for Cheaper Oil

Israel’s former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan urged the United States yesterday not to sell out Israel in return for cheaper oil. He also ruled out any form of negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization and stressed repeatedly that there was no room for a Palestinian state on the land between Israel and Jordan.

In a speech to the National Press Club here which was broadcast nationally, Israel’s former military chief, now a Labor member of the Knesset, appealed to the U.S. not to give in to Arab pressure aimed at forcing concessions out of Israel in a Mideast peace settlement. “We don’t want you to fight for us but we do want you to sell us arms,” Dayan said. “We hope you won’t sell us out just because you want cheaper oil.”

He also posed a rhetorical question to his audience: “Just in case Russia does want to get involved physically (in the Middle East) will you do something about it? It’s very, very important,” he said, indicating Israel’s concern over American intentions in the Middle East.

“No room” exists for a Palestinian state embracing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Dayan said. He observed that before the 1967 war, the Palestinians had 20 years to set up their own state in those regions. They didn’t do it because no responsible Arab believes that Gaza and the West Bank can constitute a viable state, he said. The Palestinians called Amman their capital by their own free choice, and the only party that can talk about the Palestinians’ interest is Jordan, Dayan added.

POSSIBLE CHANGES FOR BETTER RELATIONS

He said, however, that the true issue now is not who speaks for the Palestinians but what their concept is. The concept advanced by the PLO is of a Palestinian state that must include “part of Israel,” he said. A PLO controlled state on the West Bank will not be a state, “just a detonator to blow up the whole thing,” Dayan declared.

He added: “There may be a change for the better in relations between Israel and some of the other Arab countries–with Egypt, Jordan and some of the Palestinians.” He suggested that the road to peace in the Middle East lay not in “another meeting, another agreement,” but in a continuing “process” of Jewish and Arab co-existence. “The way they (the Arabs) feel about us is the main obstacle,” he said. Dayan stated that if he had to choose between a signed agreement that would not alter the present conditions and “the thing” that does improve circumstances without a written contract, he would approve of “the thing.”