Israel Defense Minister Moshe Dayan told the American people today that guarantees by the United States and the Soviet Union or by the U.S. alone are not the ultimate answer to peace in the Middle East. He also stated that the question of whether or not a United Nations peace-keeping force would be acceptable to Israel would have to be answered “within the general aspect of peace.” Dayan made these statements during an interview on CBS-TV “Face the Nation,” taped yesterday.
Asked by reporters whether guarantees-foolproof guarantees–were not more important than territories for Israel’s defense, Dayan said he did not know what this meant in practical terms. He asked rhetorically whether this meant that the U.S. would send troops to the are a to protect Israel and whether Congress or the American people were ready to accept such a move.
Declaring that there are three elements in maintaining peace in the Mideast–territories, peace agreement and armaments–Dayan said, “If peace is maintained we don’t need guarantees. The question is whether the Arabs will break the peace.” He stated that territory is important to Israel because, while it is possible for the enemy to launch missiles and utilize air-power, to destroy cities, the. conquest of territory is what determines the future of a nation. “It matters very much where war starts,” he. said, asserting that if Israel is forced to return to its pre-June 1967 borders “we’ll be much worse off than before.”
The Defense Minister noted that guarantees by a superpower or even its presence in the area are insufficient to restore normalcy and quiet. He pointed out that despite the presence of a U.S. aircraft carrier near Bab el Mandeb the blockade by Egypt continues and there is no freedom of navigation.
On other subjects, Dayan denied pressures on Israel from the U.S. Europe or Japan but said in reference to the U.S., “We won’t be dictated to. They won’t tell us what to do”; stated that “Israeli forces do not have nuclear weapons” and also said that he does not believe reports that there are Soviet nuclear weapons in Egypt; contended that the USSR is not now militarily dominant in the Mideast but would be if she sent in troops and the U.S. did not; observed that there is a possibility that fighting might break out again before the Geneva peace talks, but that “this is absolutely up to the decision of the Egyptians.”
Dayan also stated that he would recommend to the Israeli government that it not sit down with the Syrians at the Geneva peace table until Syria permits Red Cross representatives to visit Israeli POWs and submits a list of the POWs to Israel. He also stated that If Palestinians want to participate in the peace talks they should be represented by Jordan.
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