A top American Jewish leader has stepped out in support of territorial compromise as a solution to the Arab-Israel violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, provided Palestinians agree to Israel’s right to statehood.
“The Palestinians and the Arab countries must prove to Israel that order can be restored and that a brief period of silence is not simply an armistice before a war,” Morris Abram, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said in an address here.
“Similarly, the Israelis must convince the Palestinians that if they recognize Israel and forswear their covenant of violence, territorial compromise becomes a realistic goal,” he said.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, leader of Israel’s Labor Party, has endorsed the principle of territorial compromise. But at least publicly, Premier Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the Likud bloc, has resisted the idea of giving up land for peace.
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