Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman returned to Israel today to prepare for implementation of the diplomatic and military phases of the Camp David agreements aimed at signing a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt before the end of the year.
Speaking to reporters at Ben Gurion Airport, both ministers made it clear that Israelis will face an agonizing choice–removal of the settlements in the Rafah salient of Sinai or the possible collapse of the Camp David framework for an Israeli-Egyptian peace pact.
They indicated that the movement toward a final settlement with Egypt would precede the more complex comprehensive agreement on the future of the West Bank and Gaza Strip which entails negotiations with Jordan and the Palestinians and involves a five-year transitional period. “Theoretically, both negotiations could be carried on simultaneously but we may prefer to complete the Sinai talks first,” Dayan said. He noted that the Camp David agreements call for opening negotiations with Egypt on Sinai within two weeks following a Knesset decision on the settlements.
A CHANCE FOR REAL PEACE
Weizman observed: “After 30 years we now have a chance for a real peace agreement, normalization of relations, economic, social, diplomatic–everything. This is a chance we have all been waiting and fighting for.” He added, “Unfortunately, in the ten years (since the Six-Day War) circumstances have arisen in which we have to decide to uproot certain things we have planted in order to plant anew….The question is peace or settlements.”
Dayan concurred that this is “the hard fact of the case.” He said that “the question at the moment is if, not when and on that the Knesset must decide.” Weizman preferred to characterize an Israeli withdrawal from Sinai as a “redeployment” of forces to new lines in compliance with decisions reached on the political leval rather than a “retreat.”
PREPARATIONS FOR REDEPLOYMENT
It was disclosed, meanwhile, that the basic preparations for “redeployment” have already been made. Even before Weizman and Dayan returned from the Camp David talks, the army ordered all construction and maintenance work halted at Israeli military installations in Sinai and an end to other projects that involve an expenditure of money for works that may soon be abandoned. The army supply corps will be responsible for the dismantling and transfer of military installations and the construction of new lines.
But Weizman made it clear that while the blueprint for withdrawal is ready, it will not be put into effect until an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty is actually signed. If any hitch develops, he said, the plans will be filed away until such time as the situation warrants their implementation.
Another problem under consideration by the defense forces is the selection of two sites in the Negev where the U.S. has pledged to build military airfields for Israel to compensate for the air bases at Etam and Etzion in eastern Sinai that Israel will relinquish. Suitable sites will not be easy to find, military sources indicated. Moreover, it would take up to five years to build new air bares with underground hangers and fuel depots. Israel is supposed to evacuate Sinai within three years after the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt.
Another problem will be the replacement of Israel’s naval base at Sharm el-Sheikh from which Gabriel missile boats and Dabour patrol boats presently guard Israel’s access to the Red Sea. The closest Israeli port is Eilat but experts say the harbor there is too small for a large naval installation.
Even if all goes well in the negotiations, military sources intimated that Israel would not be able to reduce its manpower for several years. When the evacuation of Sinai is completed, the manpower will be transferred to other branches of the army, the sources said.
40,000 PEOPLE HAIL THE APPROACH OF PEACE
For the public at large, the skepticism that greeted the first announcement of the Camp David agreements yesterday, gave way to euphoria last night. Some 40,000 people massed in Tel Aviv’s municipal plaza to hail the approach of peace. Mayor Shlomo Lehat spoke with Premier Menachem Begin by telephone from Washington. Their conversation was relayed over the public address system.
When Begin said that Israel had gained important concessions at Camp David and that the movement was toward peace, the throngs burst into songs and impromptu dancing in the streets. Followers of the Peace Now movement, once the most vocal critics of Begin’s policies, called for a giant rally in his honor when he returns to Israel.
On the political level, most political leaders and parties welcome the Camp David outcome, indicating that a majority of the Knesset will support the Prime Minister in the upcoming debate on the Sinai settlements. However, fierce opposition has developed among the hardliners in Begin’s Herut faction, the Greater Israel advocates and the organizations of settlers in the occupied territories.
A majority of the Labor opposition supports Begin although the fate of the Rafah settlements, including the town of Yamit, a pet project of the past Labor-led government, has aroused grave misgivings. Former Premier Golda Meir vehemently attacked the agreements because of Yamit and the other settlements. She said Labor can’t change its position just because Dayan, once the strongest advocate of settlements in Sinai, has changed his mind.
Meanwhile, the prospects of peace with Egypt by the year’s end has revived many projects that were originally proposed after President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem last November. These include the transformation of Sinai into a huge nature preserve and the construction of a railroad from EI Arish on the Mediterranean coast to Kantara on the Suez Canal, both envisaged as joint Israeli-Egyptian undertakings. One immediate result of the Camp David agreements was the reinstatement of telephone and telex communications between Israel and Egypt.
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