The Israeli leader who headed the first peace delegation to Cairo declared here today that “President (Anwar) Sadat now counts on America to exert pressure on Israel.” Dr. Eliahu Ben Elissar, director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, said he believes that Egypt’s negotiating position has “actually become tougher following Sadat’s visit to the United States a month ago.”
Ben Elissar, who arrived in this country last night for his first American visit, made these assertions at a press conference here, prior to his address this evening before 900 U.S. and Canadian Jewish leaders launching the worldwide Israel Bond campaign in 1978. This year’s campaign centers around the celebration of Israel’s 30th anniversary.
At his press conference, Ben Elissar said that during Sadat’s recent visit with President Carter and State Department officials, the Egyptian President set out “deliberately to involve the U.S. on his side” and succeeded in having Washington adopt on attitude “in favor of Egypt’s original position, which has brought about a hardening of its stand on the crucial issues.”
RAPS PLANES SALE TO SAUDI ARABIA
Ben Elissar also criticized the prospective sale of F-15 U.S. fighter planes to Saudi Arabia. “If you want to make a contribution to the peace-making process, you don’t furnish arms to harden the position of the other side,” he said. The Israeli official was absolutely convinced, he added, that sophisticated planes sold to Saudi Arabia were intended to be used against Israel and not for the defense against any threat from Iraq.
The supply of such advanced weapons to the Saudis, according to Ben Elissar, “would upset the Middle East arms balance and change the outlook of Israel on the problem of its security.” In the past, he said, Israel’s defense system was based on a formula in which “quality was relied upon to make up for a lack of quantity.” He pointed out that if F-15 planes are sold to Saudi Arabia, Israel would “lose the advantage of quality.”
Ben Elissar called upon the United States and American Jews to accelerate “their support for Israel at the present real turning point in our history.”
Sam Rothberg, general chairman of State of Israel Bonds, who presided at the evening dinner at the Konover Hotel, told the assembled guests that “the building and development of Israel must go on regardless of headlines about the ups and downs of the peace negotiations. Our solidarity and our unity are being put to the test once again.
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.
