An increasingly bitter debate over policies in the occupied territories between former Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, secretary-general of the Israel Labor Party and Minister Without Portfolio in the coalition Cabinet, and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, has spilled out of the Knesset (Parliament) and into the Israeli press. Mr. Sapir used a Labor Party rally in Safad to accuse Gen. Dayan of disclosing secret decisions by a ministerial committee on the occupied territories in the Knesset. He challenged the Defense Minister’s assertion that his proposed plan of economic integration of parts of the West Bank with Israel was consistent with decisions already made on the highest Government level and policies already in effect.
Gen. Dayan replied to Mr. Sapir through the local press. His supporters supplied newspapers with mimeographed copies of statements on record in the Knesset and booklets containing reports already published to illustrate that Gen. Dayan was not revealing any secrets and that his proposals were based on sound decisions already taken. Mr. Sapir is expected to raise the issue at next Sunday’s Cabinet meeting.
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