Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan warned Israeli Arabs and those on the West Bank today not to be “carried away by the Islamic fanaticism” currently sweeping parts of the Middle East or they would “pay very dearly for it. “His remarks, to delegates attending the Prime Ministers’ Israel Bonds conference here reflected Israel’s growing alarm over recent events, notably the upheaval in Iran and the increasingly outspoken support for the Palestine Liberation Organization by Israeli Arabs.
Dayan also expressed the view that the Islamic ferment in the region would render the earning phases of peace negotiations with Egypt “no easier or simpler” because Egypt now, more than ever, is anxious to prove to the other Arab states that it is not making a “separate deal” with Israel or abandoning the Palestinian cause.
Israel’s responses, according to Dayan, should include a tightening of its grip on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and greater circumspection with regard to one-man regimes in the Arab world. In that connection he mentioned Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He said peace would have to be founded on solid “nation-to-action bases.
His clear warning to Israeli Arabs followed public expressions of support for the PLO by some 200 Arab dignitaries meeting in Nazareth last Sunday, Although the meeting was sponsored by groups closely affiliated with the Communist Party, if drew many non Communist Arabs including several mayors hitherto considered to be establish sent-oriented. The Nazareth meeting followed by a few days an Israeli Arab students message of support to the Palestine National Council, now meeting in Damascus.
WARNS ISRAELI ARABS TO REMEMBER 1948
Dayan warned the Israeli Arabs to “remember 1948” when, he said, they threw away the chance for peace and a Palestinian state and found themselves refugees in Lebanon as a result. “We are not the Shah . . . We are not foreign rulers here, “Dayan declared. His audience was visibly taken aback by the share and somber tone of his remarks but after recovering from their initial surprise they gave Dayan some warm applause.
The Foreign Minister said Israel’s policy was aimed at “living together” with the Palestinians. But, he said, if they were “not satisfied” and sought to “replace Israel with an Islamic concept” they would “have to pay very dearly indeed.” He stressed that Israel’s defense concerns were now more crucial than ever. It must increase the number of settlements in the Jordan Valley and the number of settlers in existing settlements and the settlements must be sited “in a more compact way”, Dayan said.
“The same applied” to Samaria and the Gaza Strip, he said, adding that this was “the only answer” to Israel’s defense needs and he believed a majority of Israelis fell the same way. Both Israel end Egypt will have to make an effort to understand each other’s considerations and concerns in the light of current regional events, Dayan said.
PRAISES U.S. ROLE IN PEACE TALKS
He praised the American role in the peace talks, observing that no other modality could work as well or better in bringing the two sides together. But he criticized the U.S. for allegedly not siding with Israel in its escalating battles with the PLO across the Lebanese border. “No one else will take care of us and that includes the UN, “he said. He said the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) contingents “are sent by their various countries with the best motivation . . . But they cannot provide us with proper defense.”
Discussing the broader implications of the situation in Iran and unrest elsewhere in the Middle East, such as the recent riots in Turkey, Dayan said the West must reappraise its assessment of “the stability of regimes in the region” and re-think its prognoses of “what sort of Mideast we shall have in a few years’ time. “Simultaneously, he said, the governments in this region will be reassessing their own appraisal of “how helpful the U.S. can be in assuring stability.”
Dayan said he was not “criticizing anyone. Indeed, I do not think the U.S. could have done anything in Iran . . . “But a number of Middle East leaders will reappraise their reliance on close ties with the U.S. and the West as an assurance of their survival and stability, Dayan said. In that connection, he mentioned the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Morocco who, he said, were inevitably influenced by their fear that what has happened elsewhere might happen to them to.
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.
