Allon: Mideast War Not Inevitable

War in the Middle East is possible but not inevitable, Israel’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Yigal Allon said here last night. He said Israel has combined two initiatives–to seek out every avenue to peace while remaining adequately prepared should Egyptian President Anwar Sadat carry out his threat to renew warfare against Israel. Allon spoke at an Israel Bond dinner at Temple Har Zion here where the guests purchased over $1 million in Israel Bonds. The Israeli leader thanked them for their commitment to Israel’s future. The dinner was held in honor of Bernard Fishman, Honorary President of Temple-Har Zion.

Speaking earlier in New York at the closing luncheon session of the American Jewish Committee’s 66th annual meeting, Allon stressed the Israeli conviction that there could be no military solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that only negotiations could lead to peace.

He contended that the Palestinian Arabs now living in Israel-administered territory were the first Arab group to understand this, and cited as evidence the large Arab turnout in elections recently held in West Bank Arab cities, despite the attempts of terrorist groups to prevent their participation in an Israeli-sponsored election.

Allon also declared that the credibility of the United States in the world arena was a basic factor in the preservation of peace in the Middle East and for the basic stability of all countries in the non-Communist world. When any large power thinks that the balance has tipped in its favor, he pointed out, it is prepared to take aggressive steps. “The last thing that should happen in the Middle East,” he stated, “is a vacuum that will tempt foreign powers to fill it up.”