Defense Minister Moshe Arens assured Knesset members today that Israel had no intention to attack Syria, though he warned that if Syria escalated the situation in the north, for whatever reasons, “The scope of the Israeli reaction would be dictated by Israel.”
Arens spoke at a closed session of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, a body he had chaired before he was named Ambassador to the U.S. over a year ago. He was responding to Labor M K Mordechai Gur, a former Chief of Staff, who urged the government not to maintain an aggressive policy and refrain from any military initiative against Syria.
Arens called on Syria’s leaders to confer with Israeli leaders over peace talks between the two countries. He also called on King Hussein of Jordan to join the peace process with Israel but rejected a freeze on Jewish settlement activity in the occupied territories as a condition for Jordan’s participation.
Speaking of Israel’s relations with the U.S., Arens maintained that the two countries agreed on the strategic level but their views differed on the tactical level. He noted that mutual concessions were necessary between allies and said Israel abandoned its demand for a peace treaty with Lebanon at this time at the urging of the U.S. He added, however, that Israel would make no concessions “on matters of life or death.”
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