Dinitz: Bi-lateral Treaties No Substitute for Directly Negotiated Borders

Any bi-lateral or multi-national guarantee of Israel’s borders can only come after Israel has achieved secure and defensible borders through negotiations with the Arab states and cannot be a substitute for secure borders. This was stressed by Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz today at a luncheon session of the B’nai B’rith’s Anti-Defamation League’s 60th annual meeting at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and earlier at the 40th anniversary convention of the Jewish Labor Committee at the Hotel Roosevelt. Dinitz told the ADL audience that Israel wants to be strong enough to defend itself, to deter any attack and to ensure that if any attack does come it will be repulsed quickly.

He warned that if the United States or any other country were to give a guarantee it would be their responsibility to enforce it if it broke down. He said Americans rightly do not want another Vietnam where they will have to send American soldiers to defend another country. Dinitz stressed he was not referring to the suggestion made by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger in Peking, since the Israeli Ambassador contended that Kissinger did not say Israel should substitute secure borders for a guarantee. Dinitz said the challenge ahead for Israel will be tougher than any previous challenge on the political and diplomatic front.

Addressing the Jewish Labor Committee he called on the American Jewish community and the Jewish labor movement today to unite “into one cohesive bond in order to help Israel win a political battle in the Middle East.” Dinitz lashed out at the Soviet Union and said that it was “responsible for the bloodshed, trouble, aggression and widows and orphans in the Middle East.” He called it “cynicism of the first order” that Russia “wants to sit at the peace table.” He said that Russia had removed its civilian personnel from Syria and Egypt two days before the Yom Kippur War and did not notify anyone, “not even the United States, from whom she wanted favored nation treatment, that an attack on Israel was imminent.”

Dinitz revealed that in recent negotiations with Egyptians regarding POW exchanges, an Egyptian officer said, “We were told that we are over-populated anyway. You have 8000 of us and we have 300 of your people. The 8000 are unimportant to us.” He also revealed that the Syrians who have refused to discuss POW releases, “also refused to consider Israel’s offer to permit 14,000 villagers from Syria to return to their homes.” Judge Jacob T. Zukerman of the New York City Family Court was re-elected president of the Jewish Labor Committee today.