Premier Menachem Begin urged American businessmen today to invest in Israel where they would find the combination of “inventive brains” and “skilled labor” that can make investments profitable. He also gave a strong plug for American investments in Egypt to help liquidate its poverty and set an example to other. Middle East countries that “peace brings prosperity.”
Begin addressed more than 150 businessmen at a luncheon sponsored by the U.S. -Israel Business Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at the Plaza Hotel. He was preceded by Vice President Walter Mondale who hailed the Israeli leader as a warrior for peace and asserted that American business has a crucial role to play in the achievement of peace in the Middle East.
Begin noted pointedly that the peace treaty Israel signed with Egypt in Washington on Monday ends Egypt’s participation in the Arab boycott of companies doing business with Israel. He noted that next Monday he is going to Cairo at the invitation of “my friend Sadat” to return the visit President Anwar Sadat paid to Jerusalem in November, 1977. He spoke of Egypt’s social and economic problems and observed that “Egypt needs help,” to overcome them. ###, a Jew, an Israeli, appeal to you to invest in Egypt and help item rebuild their economy, “he declared.
Of his own country, he stressed that Israel’s free enterprise policy and stable political conditions offer a fertile ground for investment, He promised that all bureaucratic obstacles would be removed for American investors.
The Israeli Premier devoted much of his speech to warning against Soviet machinations in the Middle East and the oil sheikhdoms that try to dictate policy to the free world. He said the free world must take “a hard look” at the situation and decide “how long it will be tolerated” that a few sheikhs who were helped by Western technology to make use of their oil can dictate to the West its way of life and policies.
ISRAEL WILL BUY OIL FROM EGYPT
He noted that even before the downfall of the Shah of Iran, Israel had begun to seek diversified sources of oil because the Shah had said at one time that he would join the Arab oil embargo against Israel. He said Israel will be buying Sinai oil from Egypt under the peace treaty terms. “I have a pledge from Sadat, and he is a man of his word,” Begin declared. He said that although the U.S. has pledged to provide Israel with its oil needs for the next 15 years if Israel cannot obtain oil from other sources, “we will do everything possible” not to have to invoke the American promise.
Begin warned that the liberty of the free world and the West is presently in danger. He cited increasing Soviet influence in the Middle East and claimed that its aim is to control the oil producing states in the region and “make the world depend on the whim of Moscow.”
Begin said the U.S. should recognize the strategic importance of Israel which is a stable democracy and also has “a good army.” He recalled that when Syria was poised to attack Jordan during the latter’s purge of Palestinian terrorists in 1970, the U.S. which had its Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, nevertheless called on Israel to deter the Syrians.
Mondale, who spoke to reporters before the luncheon, said that the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty has not resulted in any threats from the Arab states to reduce oil supplies to the U.S. “There have been absolutely no threats of oil source restraints nor do we anticipate any, “he said. Mondale said he had been-asked by President Carter to attend the luncheon honoring Begin.
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