Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan expressed the hope today that the negotiations between Israel and Egypt for a peace treaty, which opens in Washington Thursday, will be successful. In a major foreign policy address to the 33rd session of the General Assembly, Dayan said that Israel desires that the peace process will eventually include Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. When the Foreign Minister reached the podium to begin his address, many Arab and African delegates walked out of the Assembly chamber. But the Egyptian Ambassador, Ahmed Meguid, remained conspicuously at his seat throughout the speech.
Dayan declared that Jerusalem “is the one and only eternal capital of Israel,” and said that the Israeli settlements in Judaen, Samaria and the Gaza Strip “are there as of right.”
“We have not and we shall never have any other capital city, whether or not others recognize it as such,” Dayan said. Noting that Jerusalem is a holy place for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, he said that the connection of that city for the Jewish people “is not just religious, but derives from the totality of Jewish national interest. Jerusalem is the heart and soul of the Jewish people.”
He said that Israel wants to live as an equal with the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza. “We want to live with them, not to replace them, but at the same time we do not regard ourselves as foreigners in these areas. It is inconceivable to us that Jews should be prohibited from settling and living in Judaea and Samaria which are the heart of our homeland.”
The Israeli Foreign Minister devoted a large part of his speech to the Camp David accords. He hailed President Carter’s part in helping Israel and Egypt reach the agreements and said that if a peace treaty is signed between the two Mideast countries “President Carter’s name will be recorded in history as a great peacemaker.”
Dayan also praised Egyptian President Anwar Sadat “for his vision and faith.” He said that Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem last November turned a new page and “ushered in an historic change in the relations between Egypt and Israel.”He also said that Premier Menachem Begin’s “courage and leadership were a decisive factor” in the positive new developments in the Mideast. Without Begin’s “readiness and ability to assume responsibility for very painful decisions, the achievements reached at Camp David would not have been conceivable.”
Dayan warmed against the escalation of arms purchases by the Mideast countries charging that the Arab states alone bought arms amounting to SII billion since the beginning of 1977. “Indeed, over the past five years, the arms agreements signed by these states have outstripped both NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries in the ratio of their arms buildup,” he said. He declared Israel’s readiness to enter into arms limitations agreements with all states in the Middle East.
CONCERN ABOUT SOVIET JEWRY
During his 30-minute speech Dayan urged the Soviet Union to allow Jewish culture to be expressed freely in the USSR. He said that Israel welcomes the recent increase in the number of exit visas issued to Soviet Jews. But, he noted, a great number of Jews are still denied permission to leave. He expressed concern over the plight of Soviet Jewry, particularly those of whom had been sentenced recently to prison terms or internal exile.
“We cannot be silenced in the face of the rising incitement and defamation against the State of Israel and the Jewish people, its religion, culture and national movement as manifested day after day in the official Soviet media,” Dayan declared. “These anti-Semitic attacks, unprecedented in their intensity may have most dangerous consequences.”
After his address Dayan met with Secretary General Kurt Waldheim for 40 minutes to discuss the general Middle East situation and recent developments in Lebanon. Dayan did not discuss the situation in Lebanon in his speech. A reception in Dayan’s honor, given by Ambassador Yehuda Blum of Israel and Mrs. Blum, will be held tonight at the Essex House in New York.
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.
