Beigin Spells out His Views

Likud leader Menachem Beigin, who may be Israel’s next Premier, expounded on his political views in some detail in an interview published in Time magazine today. He said that “Under no circumstances can we agree to a so-called Palestinian state,” that the West Bank was an integral part of Israel and Arabs living there would be offered Israeli citizenship and that territorial changes in Sinai and on the Golan Heights could be worked out in peace negotiations with Egypt and Syria. He agreed that 1977 “might be the year of political negotiations.”

Beigin stated that he was convinced that President Carter would not bring pressure to bear on Israel or try to coerce it into an unacceptable peace settlement by withholding military and economic support. He expressed the same views on the ABC Issues and Answers” television program yesterday.

With respect to a Palestinian state, he told Time magazine that Likud’s position represented a national consensus shared by virtually all political parties and 95 percent of the population. He said there were no differences between Likud and other parties on refusal to return to Israel’s 1967 borders or the status of Jerusalem. He said Likud differed from the Labor Party insofar as the latter was prepared to return parts of the West Bank while “Likud is not ready to do so.”

OBJECTS TO WORD ‘ANNEX’

Beigin objected to the word “annex” with respect to the West Bank because “You annex foreign land by international law. You wouldn’t annex Tel Aviv…. The same applies to Bethlehem.” He said, in the interview:

“We are ready to give the people of Samaria and Judaea free option of citizenship. If they want Israeli citizenship, they will get it. If they prefer to keep their previous citizenship, they may. We are not going to farce ours on them. They can have complete cultural autonomy and social and economic advancement, living in their homes. This is their homeland …. I believe we can live together. It is not an occupied country as people understand that horrible term. We let them live in their homeland.”

Beigin also stated: “Within Sinai we can find a line of peace in the context of a peace treaty. The same principle would apply to the Golan Heights. But Judaea and Samaria cannot be given up in any part, not only because they belong to us, but because it would destroy our security and in my opinion destroy the chance for peace.”

He intimated that he thought President Carter would understand Israel’s Biblical claim to Judaea and Samaria. “He knows the Bible by heart. I also know some parts of the Bible. And he knows the land. Let him be the judge,” Beigin said.

DOESN’T SEE IMPOSED SOLUTION

He added, “I value relations with America very much, provided they are mutual and with reciprocity.” He said, “I don’t think President Carter will” try to impose a solution on Israel. “He is not going to send Marines to coerce us. We are a sovereign state and to assume that President Carter, of all people, would withhold arms is the wildest fantasy.”

Beigin referred to Carter’s admonition to President Ford during the election campaign for trying to put pressure on Israel. He said a man who “claims that there must be morality between nations, that he of all people should try to bring Israel to her knees is inconceivable. If it happens, then we shall say, ‘Mr. President, we are going to stand on our feet. We are not going on our knees.'”

On being referred to as a “terrorist,” Beigin said, “I don’t give a damn.” But he said that when PLO chief Yasir Arafat is referred to as “guerrilla” when “I am called a terrorist … I think that is the apex of injustice.”