Independent Presidential candidate John Anderson stated that there is justification for Israel’s settlements on the West Bank and that they are very clearly related to Israel’s security needs. In an interview published in Die Welt yesterday, Anderson said that even President Anwar Sodat saw some justification for the settlements on security grounds and that he himself accepts that approach.
Anderson a Republican Congressman from Illinois, visiting Israel and Egypt last week and was in West Germany this week. He left for France yesterday. According to Anderson, there is no reason why 14,000 Israeli settlers could not live peacefully side-by-side with the Arabs on the West Bank. He noted, however, that the impression he gained during his stay in Israel was that the Labor Party is much more flexible about territorial compromise with the Arabs than Premier Menachem Begin.
The candidate criticized U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East, claiming that it was as much hostage to Arab oil as the 52 Americans held in Iran are hostages. He also suggested that Americans should pay as much for gasoline as Germans pay, which would mean adding more than a dollar a gallon to the present price. He said that even if he weren’t a candidate he would not vote for either President Carter or Ronald Reagan.
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