Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan said last night that he expects a statement from Secretary of State Cyrus Vance assuring Israel that the United States will not apply pressure by cutting military and economic aid. Addressing the United Jewish Appeal Study Conference here, Dayan said such a pledge was given him by President Carter and Vance and that the Secretary had promised to make a public statement to the effect.
Dayan said he was “worried and upset” by the joint U.S.-Soviet statement of Oct. I. He said that in previous administrations, U.S. policy had been to keep the Russians out of the Middle East. He also took issue with the Carter Administration’s support for a “Palestinian homeland.” He quoted Syrian President Hafez Assad as saying that such a step was a milestone toward the destruction of Israel.
Dayan said Israel wanted to go to the Geneva conference but was not sure it would take place. “Neither the Arabs nor the Soviet Union have replied whether they accept the (U.S.-Israel) working paper and I can say that Israel will not agree to any changes” in it, he said.
Dayan repeated that he was “shocked” when Carter, according to his account, accused Israel of doing less for peace than the Arabs. “Anyone who has followed Middle East developments through the years knows that Israel has sought a genuine peace agreement from the very beginning, back in 1948, while the Arabs have been obstinate and refused to have anything to do with us,” Dayan said. He also reiterated his regret that some Israeli newspapers reported that he had characterized his talks with Carter as “brutal.” “The talks were constructive,” he said.
POSSIBLE OUTLINE OF MIDEAST SETTLEMENT
(Meanwhile, in London, the authoritative magazine, “Arabia and the Gulf,” reported today that the substance of a possible Mideast peace settlement was discussed by Dayan at his meetings with American leaders in Washington.
(According to the report, it was concluded at those meetings that Israel would return the greater part of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and the bulk of the Golan Heights to Syria; Dayan’s “co-existence” formula for the West Bank would be adopted involving joint Israeli-Jordanian administration of that region; Jerusalem would remain entirely under Israeli rule; demilitarized zones would be set up with Egypt and Syria and diplomatic relations would be established between Israel and the Arab states.
(The magazine quoted a “very senior American official source” to the effect that no provisions were made for a Palestinian entity. It said Washington’s greatest fear is that the Syrians will refuse to go to Geneva under the conditions now evolving and could torpedo the whole conference. The periodical also reported that Egypt’s procedural formula for reconvening the Geneva conference envisaged an invitation addressed to the Arab League of which the PLO is a member and a low-level Palestinian presence at the talks as part of the Egyptian delegation.)
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