Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said here that he trusted the United States not to exert pressure on Israel for territorial concessions, that he favored Defense Minister Shimon Peres over Premier Yitzhak Rabin to head the Labor Party and the next Israeli government and that he believed the Arab states preferred a political settlement rather than another war with Israel although they were not yet ready for a final peace.
Dayan discussed his views in detail at a dinner of the Joint Israel Appeal attended by 1100 people Saturday night, on a BBC television interview and at a press conference this morning. He is in England on a fund-raising mission and will leave for the United States shortly on a similar tour.
Dayan said he was confident that the U.S. would not try to impose a settlement on Israel or exert any kind of pressure for territorial concessions, though one of the reasons the Arabs now favored peace was their belief that they could get more out of Israel through U.S. pressure than by war. He said he believed the Carter Administration would honor the military and economic assistance commitments made to Israel by its predecessor. He noted that while the style of U.S. diplomacy may be less public under Secretary of State Cyrus Vance than under former Secretary Henry A. Kissinger, it would not change in substance. According to Dayan, the current Arab “peace offensive” represented Israel’s “biggest international achievement in foreign policy.” He said the peace statements by Arab leaders must be taken seriously and that Israel should be prepared to attend a reconvened Geneva peace conference next summer without preconditions. He said a Geneva conference based on Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 would preclude participation by a separate PLO delegation. There will be progress toward peace, though not a final peace settlement, Dayan said.
Commenting on the recent riots in Egypt, Dayan said that President Anwar Sadat faced “a very grave situation” at home and would have to wield a strong hand to survive. He will have to cut his military budget and “that will be good for Egypt and very good for Israel,” Dayan said. But he predicted that even if Sadat fell, a new regime in Cairo would stick to the Sinai disengagement agreements and, because of economic difficulties, would not start a war “just now.”
ISRAEL’S FUTURE BOUNDARIES
Regarding the shape of Israel’s future boundaries, Dayan said Israel should be ready to withdraw from the western shores of Sinai on the Gulf of Suez but should retain a strip on the eastern shore as far as Sharm el Sheikh to protect the Gulf of Eilat. He thought border adjustments could be made on the Golan Heights especially if Syria returned the civilian population to Kuneitra instead of fortifying it.
Dayan said the problem with Jordan was not territorial. He opposed annexation of the West Bank but he would retain Israel’s military control of that region as well as the Gaza Strip. He would also insist on the right of Jews to buy land on the West Bank and establish settlements alongside Arab population centers. The Jewish settlements would have Israeli nationality and the Arab ones would be linked to Jordan, he said.
Dayan contended that there was no need for a separate Palestinian state for the half-million former refugees in Jordan who have been given citizenship and the right to work there. He said such a state could not accommodate the 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
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