Simcha Dinitz. Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, outlined to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations today what he said are Israel’s “five cardinal points” necessary to achieve a Middle East settlement.
According to sources, they are the Soviet Union should be kept out of the negotiating process since it could jeopardize the realization of a just and lasting peace; a strong Israel is a necessary precondition for free negotiations; a security margin which would protect Israel against invasion; no foreign guarantees as a substitute for a negotiated settlement; and no imposed peace.
Dinitz told the Presidents Conference that there is no progress toward a Mideast settlement at present because the Arab states are first waiting for the Lebanese crisis to end. He said Israel has offered the Arabs the option of an overall peace settlement or the American-suggested state-by-state end of belligerency agreement. He said each week he asks Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger if the Arabs have given an answer to the proposal and each week he is told, no.
In answer to a question, Dinitz scored the sale of arms to the Arab countries by the Soviet Union and the industrialized West. He said a dangerous situation was created by the “lust” for arms by the Arab military regimes and the desire by the industrialized countries for the huge cash surpluses of the Arab regimes.
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.
