Allon: Israel Accepted U.S. Plan Without Illusions: Peace May Require Yielding Land

Deputy Premier Yigal Allon said last night that Israel accepted the United States peace proposals “without any illusions as to its details” and that Israel is “quite prepared for the worst should the negotiations be broken off.” Mr. Allon added that it is almost certain that in the peace negotiations “we shall have to accept painful decisions concerning areas that are part of the historical land of Israel.” He observed that the decisions will be taken not because “we give up our historic rights to them but in spite of these rights if only we can get peace.” Mr. Allon made these observations in the course of an address he was delivering to the ideological conference of the Labor Zionist movement attended by delegates from Israel and abroad. The Deputy Prime Minister said Israel will not go to the peace negotiations table with the conception of “not a single inch backwards.”

At the same time he warned that the Arabs should not come to the negotiations with the view that no peace will be concluded unless Israel retreats from the last stretch of land taken during the Six-Day War. Mr. Allon declared that Israel will be ready to negotiate with any Arab country willing to negotiate. He noted that the government’s policy is guided by four principles in an attempt to achieve peace: a map with safe borders guarding the historical rights of the Jewish people and the State of Israel; a Jewish State of Israel with a non-Jewish minority protected by law which takes into account the existing political possibilities. Mr. Allon stated that the situation in the Middle East has no military solution. Israel cannot enforce peace on her neighbors through military force, he said, and the Arabs cannot force Israel to accept peace on their terms by the force of arms. The solution can only be concluded by political means.