Premier Menachem Begin rejected a proposal made last week by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt for “an interim settlement “that would call for Israel to return the West Bank to Jordan and the Gaza Strip to Egypt as a temporary measure pending a final decision on the future of those territories.
Addressing a European delegation of the Israel Bond Organization here yesterday, Begin called on Sadat to restore the “good spirit of the Jerusalem and Ismailia talks.”He said it was time the Egyptians matched Israel’s peace plan with one of their own for mutual discussion. “The conditions of peace cannot be dictated to Israel but must be the subject of discussions with Israel, “he said.
Sources here said Egypt has still not responded to Begin’s latest letter to Sadat, over a month ago, calling for resumption of peace talks. Meanwhile, the Cairo news media warned over the weekend that the Middle East was moving back to the pre-1973 situation. The state-controlled Cairo radio said Sadat’s pledge in Jerusalem that the 1973 war would be the last could not be fulfilled unless Israel withdrew from all the Arab territories it occupied in 1967.
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