Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan denied today that he conducted any secret meetings during his brief visits to France and England this week. Speaking to reporters at Ben Gurion Airport upon arrival, Dayan said: “I did not meet King Hussein, neither did I meet British or French officials. Whoever created the fog around my trip has the responsibility to disperse it.”
Dayan said the purpose of his visit to England was simply as it had been described: explaining to British Jewry the situation in the Middle East following the visit of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.
“I wanted British Jewry to understand us,” he said. He reported that some Jewish leaders in Britain had asked him why Israel would not halt settlements in the West Bank. “They ask this not because they themselves oppose the settlements, but because there is criticism in the world against the settlements. Some Jews do not like it when they are criticized by non-Jews.”
Dayan said he believed it was imperative that world Jewry understand the Israeli policy. “They have to understand that we were not just plain stubborn. It is not that we don’t want peace, but we simply must secure our future,” he said. “World Jewry must understand that a Palestinian state headed by the PLO would mean disaster to Israel.”
The Foreign Minister repeated, however, a statement he made in London that he believes Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is now interested in peace. Dayan said that en route to New York for the UN General Assembly next month he would stop for one day in Europe, to again brief European Jewish leaders of the latest developments in the Mideast crisis.
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