Dayan: Israel Must Never Again Agree to Demilitarized Zones

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said last night that “Israel must not leave anything to chance In any peace arrangements with the Arab states,” and that Israel would have to get rid of the United Nations observers. He noted that Israel must not agree again to demilitarized zones or accept “pious guarantees from other nations” because experience has shown that these only established a wedge between Israel and the Arabs. “Our peace objective must be to live together peacefully as we are doing now with the Arabs of the areas.” the Defense Minister told Army civilian employes in Haifa.

Replying to questions he said he did not expect the United States or any other arms supplier to interpret the latest General Assembly resolution on the Middle East as a call for an arms embargo against Israel. He said he didn’t think the new 15 percent tariff levied by Jordan on imports from the West Bank would do any serious damage to the West Bank’s economy.

But he warned that if Jordan Imposed serious travel restrictions on West Bank residents, a new situation would be created. “It is strange that residents of Nablus can travel freely to Tel Aviv but not to the capital of the country of which they were citizens,” Dayan said.

Replying to questions in the Knesset earlier, Dayan acknowledged that preliminary plans had been made by the Defense Ministry for a new immigrant town in the southern Gaza Strip to be called Yamit. It would be a port city and would serve as a buffer between the populated areas of the Strip and the Sinai peninsula.

The plans, which cost IL 60,000 to draw up, were not discussed by the Cabinet. Dayan said he did not believe prior Cabinet approval was necessary. The plans for Yamit were published three months ago and ran Into sharp objections from Mapam and other circles opposed to Dayan’s policies in the administered territories.