Defense Minister Moshe Dayan declared today that Israel must regard herself as the permanent regime in the occupied Arab territories, and must carry out necessary projects there without waiting for the day of peace since it may be very late in coming. Israel, Dayan said, must concentrate on her own activities unilaterally without relying on Arab cooperation. That, he explained, was the only realistic course in the absence of peace. Dayan addressed the 17th graduation ceremonies of the Interservices Staff College in Israel. Chief of Staff Maim Bar-Lev and the Chief of the Training Command, Gen. Itzhak Hoffi, attended along with senior Army officers and the families of the graduates. Surveying the Middle East situation, Dayan remarked that in this time of no war and no peace, Israel does not want war and the Arabs do not want peace. But when the Arabs wage war, he continued. Israel must meet them in battle; and when the Arabs reject peace, Israel’s desire for peace cannot prevail and Israel must proceed on a wartime basis.
Furthermore, Dayan noted, the Arab attitude toward Israel has become more hostile since the 1948 War of Independence. In 1949, he pointed out, the Arab countries signed armistice agreements that they recognized as introductory to a recognition of Israel. Moreover. he said, there was not a word in any of those agreements regarding the return of the refugees to Israel. When the Arabs talk of peace now, Dayan said, they do so as a tactical move to have Israel ousted from the administered areas. That was the policy of the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and it is now the policy of his successor. Anwar Sadat, Dayan contended. Turning to the Lebanese border situation, Dayan stated that as long as the Lebanese authorities cannot promise that no acts of terrorism will originate from their territory, Israel will have to act unilaterally to safeguard her security. This, he said, may include forays across the border–a reference to Israel’s action Aug. 9 in pursuing terrorists four miles into Lebanon and clashing with them for more than six hours.
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