Former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon warned last night that Israel will be the only target of the sophisticated arms that the United States intends to sell Jordan.
“I am here to warn against the Administration’s intention to sell arms to Jordan, arms that will be used to fight Israel and not any other country in the Mideast,” Sharon told an audience of more than 1,300 people at the annual fundraising dinner of Or Chadash Girls’ Town in Galilee, held at the New York Hilton Hotel.
Sharon, who presently serves as a Minister-Without-Portfolio, said that the sophisticated missiles the U.S. wants to sell Jordan will eventually “fall in the hands of the PLO.” He added: “The United States must stop immediately the dangerous arms race in the Mideast.”
U.S., EUROPEAN COUNTRIES CRITICIZED
Sharon also criticized the United States for not “stopping” the “lunatic Iraqi regime” from using chemical weapons in its on-going war with Iran. Recalling that on June 7, 1981 Israel destroyed the Iraqi nuclear plant near Baghdad, he underscored the fact that the “way the Iraqis now use their death chemical gas weapons” is the way they could have used the nuclear weapons “if we did not stop them.”
Sharon accused unnamed European countries of aiding Iraq in the gas production and urged the Reagan Administration and the Europeans to pressure Iraq to stop the use of chemical weapons, which, he noted, is prohibited by the Geneva Convention and constitutes “a danger to the Mideast and the whole world.”
CHARGES THAT REAGAN WAS MISLED
Sharon, who was Defense Minister when Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, warned that the United States and the whole free world are in the process of loosing Lebanon to Soviet domination. He said that Lebanon might turn now into a new base for international terrorism.
He also repeated charges he made recently, that a number of President Reagan’s aides, such as Philip Habib, Morris Draper and Ambassador Samuel Lewis, “misled the President of the United States and did not let us (the Israelis) finish our mission against the PLO in Lebanon.”
Sharon said that Israel will never negotiate the future of Jerusalem, “the heart of the Jewish people.” He declared: “Israel will not negotiate the future of Jerusalem with its neighbors and not with the United States, which suggested it,” referring apprently to Reagan’s speech this week in which he said that his September 1, 1982 Mideast peace initiative “remains the best option for all parties.”
Last night’s dinner was chaired by Joe Nakash, chairman of the Jordach Enterprises. Nakash and his brothers, Ralph and Avi, have been active with Or Chadash since 1979. They donated an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a six-acre campground for the school in 1982.
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.
