Defense Minister Moshe Dayan has suggested that, pending permanent peace between Israel and Egypt, the two countries could live more securely with each other in geographical relation to a dividing line somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula. Asserting at a graduating ceremony of the army staff and command college that the key to security for Israel is in the Sinai desert, he thought it would be possible to draw – by mutual agreement between the two countries – a temporary or permanent dividing line which would give the populated areas of both countries “a margin of security.”
Reiterating Israel’s official position that the cease-fire lines could be exchanged only for secure, or recognized and agreed boundaries in a peace agreement, Gen. Dayan said Israel also was prepared for an interim agreement and for “peace in stages.” He said also that Israel should strive to renew contacts, even indirect ones, with the Arab states, especially with Egypt which he said “holds the key to peace and war” to get a peace settlement.
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