Dayan Concerned the U.S. Will Pressure Israel to Make Concessions

Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan expressed concern last night that the United States is going to pressure Israel into making concessions to the Arabs in the current negotiating process.

Addressing more than 500 Jewish leaders from the Greater New York area at an Israel Bond Organization dinner at the Plaza Hotel here, the Israeli Foreign Minister said: “I am afraid that we will be put under pressure to give and give and the country that might put pressure on us is your country.” But Dayan said that while Israel is grateful for all the United States has done for it, “in the final analysis there are some decisions only the Israeli government can take.”

He said that when it comes to the security and future of Israel, for the U.S. the matter is part of its “foreign policy” but for Israel it is a matter of life or death. “When we do not see eye to eye with the Americans,” Dayan declared, “they have to know that we have to decide for ourselves.”

As in previous occasions since he arrived here last Wednesday, Dayan once again blamed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for the impasse in the negotiations between Israel and Egypt. He said Sadat feels he cannot make a separate peace with Israel–and the other parties to the conflict do not want to join the negotiations. Jordan, Dayan noted, wants Israel to accept all its terms even before negotiations started.

HAVE RIGHT TO SETTLEMENTS

On the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Dayan told the cheering audience: “We have a right to have settlements there (in the West Bank) as any Arab has….What is the crime about it? We have the right to do it and we should go on doing it.” Dayan cited the historical meaning of the West Bank to the Jews and said, “We are not foreigners there.” He said Israel does not want to interfere with the lives of the Palestinian Arabs on the West Bank once they are granted self-rule and that Israelis and Arabs can live in peace side by side.

Asked by a member of the audience about American military aid to Egypt, Dayan said he thinks the U.S. should be “very careful” about this. He said Sadat should be granted military aid by the U.S. only if Egypt is going to make peace with Israel. Otherwise, Dayan warned, these American arms will be used against Israel. During last night’s dinner, $3.1 million in Israel Bonds was purchased by the audience.

In an address to 475 Jewish leaders attending a United Jewish Appeal luncheon last Friday, Dayan declared: “In our effort to achieve a just and lasting peace for all the peoples of the Middle East, we in Israel find our most understanding and compassionate supporters within the American Jewish community. We are more than partners. We are one family.”