Allon, Sapir Rebuke Dayan for Views on Territories, Arab-jewish Relations

Sharp differences within the government over long-term policies in the administered territories have emerged in the past few days. The nub of the debate that has engaged top-ranking Cabinet ministers is whether Israel must be prepared to govern the territories indefinitely; whether such a policy, if pursued to its logical conclusion–annexation–would not destroy the Jewish character of the State; whether Israel now employs too much Arab labor from the territories; and whether it is investing too much in developing the territories at the expense of its own urgent social and economic needs.

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, the chief architect and advocate of the current policies, was rebuked by Deputy Premier Yigal Allon and Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir at a Labor Party Secretariat meeting Thursday night for his recent remarks that Jews and Arabs could co-exist only under an Israeli government and army.

Allon said he agreed with Dayan in the short term because no one intends to give up the West Bank or the Gaza Strip prior to a peace treaty. But if Dayan was referring to long-term arrangements, he was talking dangerously, Allon said.

OPPOSE ANNEXATION, INFLUX OF ARAB LABOR

“Whoever thinks we can get both peace and the administered territories is mistaken. Peace that we want, peace that is attainable is a peace arising from a compromise that would leave us defensible borders,” he said.

In a television interview Friday night. Allon warned that annexation of the Arab territories would turn Israel into a bi-national state. “I want a Jewish State with a considerable Arab minority that will enjoy various rights,” he said.

Sapir told the Party Secretariat that he opposed the influx of Arab labor into Israel which Dayan supports. “There is already a distinct division of ‘clean work’ done by Jews and ‘black work’ done by Arabs,” he said. He said he opposed annexation because he did not want a million more Arabs becoming citizens of Israel and destroying its Jewish character.

DAYAN’S POLICIES FOSTER PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE

Dayan was strongly supported at the Party meeting by Transport Minister Shimon Peres who challenged Sapir to propose the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories. He said that if Israel discontinued employing Arab labor from the territories, a severe unemployment problem would be created there, attracting world attention. He called Dayan’s policies an outstanding success that should serve as an example of peaceful co-existence.

Speaking Friday night at Belt Berl, Peres disagreed sharply with Sapir’s warning against spending too much money on the administered territories. He said he had heard “so many fire and brimstone speeches about the danger to the Jewish character of the State and the development of a ‘master-servant’ relationship between Jews and Arabs that I wonder if the territories do us so much damage why we don’t order the Army out?”

Foreign Minister Abba Eban said on a radio interview over the weekend that the prosperity on the West Bank and the contact between Jew and Arab was beneficial. He added, however, that this was not a political substitute for a settlement. “The history of national movements shows us that the more a community becomes economically prosperous and better educated, the sharper become its demands to determine its political fate,” Eban said. He added, “We must get into the habit of understanding that we live in a temporary situation and not a permanent one.”

Sapir differed with Dayan’s claim that Israeli taxpayers do not have to pay for the admini-