Sen. Jacob Javits (R.NY) has called on the Carter Administration to urge the Arab nations to stand up to the Palestine Liberation Organization “which remains as the single greatest obstacle by far to the achievement of peace in the Mideast.”
In a speech to the Senate Thursday after returning from a visit to Israel, Javits noted that the United States has pressed Israel hard on Middle East negotiations. “The time has come for the Arabs-those Arabs who believe in the negotiating process and who desire peace-to face down the PLO and demand of the Palestinian people a leadership prepared to accept achievement of peace with Israel, or forfeit claim of a voice in the settlement respecting the West Bank and Gaza” he said.
Javits pointed out that the U.S. and Israel differ over Israel’s belief that the West Bank and Gaza have a different status than Sinai and the Golan Heights.
He said that “Israel has a respectable legal basis for its contention that the status of the West Bank and Gaza is unsettled in international law, that its position is not arbitrary or intransigent and, most importantly, that it has a basis for putting forward the proposals which it has tabled.”
Javits pointed out that “to argue that those proposals are entitled to be considered and discussed and to provide a basis for Egyptian counter-proposals, is only to argue for equality and fair play.”
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