Israel Ready to Discuss Security Pacts Without Conditions, Says Allon

Israel’s Labor Minister Yigal Allon declared here last night that Israel ” stands ready to offer mutual security arrangements to any or all of the Arab states without pre-conditions”. He added, however, that Israel would not budge an inch on her insistence that there could be no changes in the present boundaries unless accompanied by peace treaties with the Arabs. “If there is to be another war,” he said, “we prefer it to be fought along the present frontiers.”

Gen. Allon made his remarks in an interview with the Sunday Observer following his arrival here for a series of public appearances on behalf of the Joint Palestine Appeal. He is en-route home to Israel after a tour of the United States. Israel’s Government, he said, is in general agreement on the peace proposals it would offer the Arabs if they came to the conference table. But the Cabinet will not disclose these proposals in advance because that would not further the prospects of serious peace talks. Negotiations, he said, must take place in strictest confidence if they are to be successful.

Gen. Allon, a hero of Israel’s war for independence in 1948, warned the Arab states, particularly Egypt, that it would be disastrous for them to start another war in the Middle East in any bid to reverse the outcome of last June’s conflict. President Nasser, he said, should not stake the future of his country on push-button missile warfare because Egypt is more vulnerable than Israel to such warfare.

He categorically rejected Arab charges that Israel’s occupying forces in the Gaza strip were “inhuman” toward the Arab inhabitants or were trying to drive them from the area. “I was in Gaza myself a few days ago and satisfied myself–as I believe the Red Cross people satisfied themselves–about, conditions,” he said. He warned, however, that Arab terrorist activities raised problems of security that must and will be coped with. He said Israel could handle incursions by armed Arab guerillas.