Allon: for Sake of Peace Israel is Willing to Give Up Most of Present Lines and Accept Weaker Border

Yigal Allon, Israel’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Education, told a group of Arab village teachers last night that Israel was prepared for the sake of peace “to give up most of the present armistice lines and accept weaker borders.” Allon told the teachers at a meeting in Um el Fahm village that Israel would not agree to return to the pre-1967 frontiers but would insist only on such boundary adjustments as were absolutely necessary for its security.

He stressed, however, that without peace negotiations “we shall not move an inch.” He said that within the framework of a peace agreement “every problem can be solved including that of the Palestinians,” and described his own “plan” as a compromise between Israel’s security needs and the national aspirations of the Arabs.

Under the “Allon Plan,” proposed by him several years ago but never explicitly endorsed by the Israeli government, Israel would evacuate the Arab populated areas of the West Bank but would retain a string of security settlements along the Jordan River.

Allon’s remarks to the Arab teachers indicated a considerably greater degree of compromise over territories than has been enunciated by other top level government leaders in recent months. At a meeting last week of the Labor Party Secretariate. Allon sharply criticized Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s stated view that Israel would have to govern indefinitely the administered territories. Most Israeli leaders have been adamantly opposed to all but minor adjustments of the present armistice lines which are regarded as the most defensible Israel has ever had.