Two Cabinet Ministers warned Syria not to undertake any “adventures” toward recapturing the Golan Heights nor to assume that its hope to achieve strategic parity with Israel could ever lead to Israel’s military defeat.
At the same time, however, Deputy Premier and Minister of Housing and Construction David Levy invited both Syria and King Hussein of Jordan to sit down with Israel and rationally talk about peace.
Levy, who was addressing the International Israel Bonds 35th anniversary conference here, rejected an international conference to deal with peace between Israel and its two Arab neighbors. He said it was inconceivable that the parties to the dispute, “less than one hour away from each other by travel,” should have to seek some city in distant places in which to hold an international conference.
RABIN CITES GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the 400 delegates, who met from March 29 to April 6, that Syria could not possibly win any military victories against Israel but warned that “all future wars will be more painful and costly than in the past because of the sophistication, fire-power, and quantity of armor.”
Reviewing Israel’s relations with Arab states, Rabin listed three priorities of the national unity government: economic recovery, terminating “the long, messy, military involvement” in Lebanon, and continuing the peace process.
At another session of the conference, Premier Shimon Peres credited the people of Israel with willingly accepting a 30 percent cut in real wages for the improvements in the nation’s economy. Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai noted that the people of Israel had made great sacrifices to defeat inflation. He said that Israelis count on world Jewry, through the Bond campaign, to “make a maximum effort in 1986 in behalf of our economy. We have confidence that you will do so.”
ISRAELI WORKERS PRAISED
Dealing with the same issue, President Chaim Herzog observed that all Israeli workers had accepted a voluntary reduction in wages of 25 to 30 percent in order to achieve economic recovery. “No other country in the world had done anything like this and we are justifiably proud of our success,” he declared.
Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir noted that the attachment of the Jewish people to Israel is without precedent among all other nations of the world. He recalled “the pioneers, the refugees and Holocaust survivors” who were the majority of Israel’s citizens back in 1951 when Bonds was founded. Development since that time, he said, has been the fruit of a successful partnership between the people of Israel and diaspora Jewry.
Gad Yaacobi, Minister of Economy and Planning, told the conference that the renewal of economic growth is essential to Israel’s successful future. “Israel,” he said, “was the only country in the world to have successfully fought inflation without enforcement or compulsion but by voluntary economic and social cooperation between the government, the labor federation (Histadrut), and the employers.”
SIGNIFICANT ROLE OF ISRAEL BONDS
The exigencies of defense and debt repayment, he said, leave a mere eight percent of the national budget for development. This eight percent must be substantially expanded and Israel Bonds must play a significant role in the enlargement of this sum, Yaacobi said.
One of the major themes of the conference was the centennial of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Premier and a principal founder of the Bond Organization in 1951, which will be observed this year.
David Hermelin, international campaign chairman of the Israel Bond Organization, reported that Israel Bond cash sales for 1986 had reached $122 million, a 22 percent increase over the same period in 1985. After his report, the conference delegates representing 86 communities from 16 countries, including the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America, announced new purchases totalling $36,512,000.
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.
