Premier Menachem Begin offered the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Disarmament a three-stage plan for peace and disarmament.
The first stage is to ban aggressive war, he said Friday. The second stage is negotiation of a nuclear non-aggression pact by the nuclear powers. The third state is the establishment of nuclear weapon free zones, he said.
In regard to the first stage, he said, “Selfdefense is the sacred duty and right of man. As long as tyranny is armed, liberty must have and develop weapons for its defense. Otherwise, slavery will engulf all of mankind and all the pacts and visions will be in vain.” He added “what should be banned, denounced and renounced, is aggressive war whether by conventional or by nuclear weapons.”
On the second stage of his proposal. Begin said the nuclear powers should negotiate a nuclear non-aggression pact. “They should undertake not to attack each other or any other country with those deadly weapons, the only exception being, if they, or their allies, are attacked with such weapons.”
On the third stage of his proposal, he said it should be modeled after the Tlatlolco Treaty of Latin America, a treaty for creation of nuclear free zones in Latin America. “Israel is prepared to negotiate and sign such a treaty with all her neighbors in the Middle East,” he said.
VISION OF PROPHETS
Begin expressed his belief that the day would come when the vision of Israeli prophets of peace in the world will prevail. He concluded “we can do it. All of us can do it. Even with animosity, even with a state of war … let us meet. Let us shake hands, talk peace to each, make agreements and all of us will change the course of history of our nations.”
When Begin started his speech, all the Arab delegates left the Assembly hall, except the Egyptian mission, which remained through his speech. However, more than 100 of the 157 UN delegations were absent during his speech. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick led a full U.S. delegation to hear Begin’s address.
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