Canadian Leader Says Israel Shows Flexibility in Pursuit of Peace

Canadian Minister of External Affairs Donald Jamieson told Israeli leaders today that there is “a universal commitment in Canada to Israel’s survival” and declared that if the Arab nations were as flexible as Israel the Geneva peace conference could be reconvened. Emerging from a meeting with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Jamieson said the Israeli leader had made it clear that Israel is prepared to take a flexible approach but there are some points which Israel cannot surrender.

“The general mood as outlined to me by Mr. Dayan is one which gives me ground for optimism that if all the parties are prepared to accommodate in like fashion then Geneva can in fact proceed,” Jamieson said. He said the possibility of starting peace talks by the end of the year depended on the Arab response to the Israel-U.S. “working paper.” The Canadian official also conferred for 90 minutes with Premier Menachem Begin and said afterwards that Canada and Israel shared the common view that an overall peace settlement must now be achieved rather than additional interim accords.

Dayan, in greeting Jamieson at a dinner in his honor last night, said Israel had to distinguish be-between friendship of nations and the understanding of nations. He cited as an example the visit earlier this week of U.S. Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal who was under instructions from the American Embassy not to visit East Jerusalem accompanied by Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.

“We got our lesson in maturity during the 1948 war when we won part of our country and we had our defeats and losses. What is holy is the fact that we lost it (Jerusalem) in one war and got it back in another. No other people wanted this city to be its capital. For a President (President Carter) who believes in the Bible to believe that the Western Wall and Mount Scopus are out of bounds to us is not understandable to us.” Jamieson arrived here yesterday on a five-day official visit.