Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan said today that Israel will know whether the Egyptians are ready to continue peace negotiations only after Secretary of State Cyrus Vance arrives in the region next month for a renewed effort to get talks started. The Foreign Minister spoke in reply to questions from leaders of the State of Israel Bond Organization in the U.S. and Canada, who were guests at a garden reception at his home here.
At present, Dayan said, the Egyptian conditions for peace were so tough that they could well lay the foundation for Israel’s destruction. He said he thought Egypt wanted peace but was not prepared to pay the price. He said the Egyptians had prepared seven years for the Yom Kippur War which ended badly for them and know that a new war would also end badly. That is why they prefer U.S. pressure on Israel to attain the objectives that their soldiers could not, Dayan claimed. But he praised the Carter Administration for its generous economic and military aid to Israel.
The delegation is visiting Israel under the leadership of Sam Rothberg, general chairman of the Israeli Bond Organization, and the sponsorship of the Israeli Ambassadors to the U.S. and Canada, Simcha Dinitz and Mordechai Shalev, respectively. They are participating in the inaugural four of Israel of the Ambassadors’ Society of Trustees, a lay division of the Bond Organization.
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