Dinitz: Egypt’s Demands on Timetable Frustrating Current Negotiations

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Simcha Dinitz, said last night that Egypt’s insistence on linking a peace treaty with Israel to a timetable for granting West Bank autonomy was the only thing which is frustrating the successful completion of the current negotiations. “This will be the issue over which the fate of the Washington agreement will be decided,” Dinitz said.

Insisting that the text of the peace agreement was “complete,” Dinitz said he was “still optimistic” that a treaty could be concluded in the near future since peace was in the mutual interest of Israel and Egypt. The Ambassador made his remarks in response to questions from Dr. William Berkowitz, rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, before an overflow crowd at the Manhattan synagogue’s “Dialogue “78” forum.

Dinitz, who will be ending his five-year tour of duty as Ambassador next month, stressed that the two frameworks for peace concluded at Camp David were separate and “distinct.” He said “We have never agreed and we were not asked to agree to condition the implementation of the one on acquiescence and agreement to the other.” Such a linkage was impossible, moreover, Dinitz stated, as long as Egypt remained the only party to the conflict willing to negotiate with Israel.

Asked whether a peace treaty with Egypt involving Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai did not entail dangerous security risks for Israel, Dinitz conceded that risks were involved, but no agreement is possible without risks. If normalization of relations with Egypt takes place, however, “the sacrifice of Sinai withdrawal will be worthwhile,” he added. Dinitz assured his audience that provisions written into the treaty with Egypt “will provide a pretty good safeguard for Israeli security.”

On the question of Judaea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, Dinitz said the continued presence of the Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli settlements in these areas were “prerequisites” to prevent the possibility of the establishment of a PLO-directed independent Palestinian state. “Our intention is to live together with Arabs in the West Bank and not be replaced by them,” he said.

Dinitz predicted that the question of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem was “one of the next battles we will have to fight in the diplomatic and political field.” Terming discussion of the issue an “absurdity,” he pledged that “as long as we live” Jerusalem would remain Israel’s capital and “open to all religions.” Dinitz cautioned that “the battle and struggle for a secure Israel is not over even after we sign an agreement with Egypt,” but would remain “a continuing struggle.”