Dayan: Smaller State with Jewish Majority Better Than Larger State with More Arabs

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said last night that he would prefer a smaller Israel with an assured Jewish majority to a larger state with a big Arab population that would threaten Jewish numerical superiority. Gen. Dayan addressed a Labor Party meeting in connection with the intra-party elections campaign. He apparently took pains to make no remarks that might run counter to government policy. He did not urge unconditional return to the Jarring peace talks. He said that if and when the government decided that conditions warranted resumption of the talks, “We shall go to the talks without pre-conditions.” Gen. Dayan added however that Israel would not compromise its “essential interests.”

Elaborating on those “interests” he observed that he agreed with Premier Meir that they include Sharm el-Sheikh, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip. He added that there was an “oral doctrine” of the government that the Jordan River is Israel’s security border and that no Arab army can be permitted west of it. Gen. Dayan warned the Arab states not to confuse Israel’s desire for peace with weakness. He said that the Egyptians, despite their bluster, want and need the Suez cease-fire as much as Israel and perhaps more so. He noted that Cairo readily accepted the first cease-fire last August and agreed to its extension which Israel had not specifically asked for. He said the re-opening of the Suez Canal and the return of civilian population to the canal zone towns was more in Egypt’s interests than Israel’s. “The Suez Canal is a natural defense line to us but not a vital waterway,” he said.