Israel’s Knesset Speaker Yitzhak Shamir made it clear that he supported the right of Jews to settle in Elon Moreh and other places in the West Bank which are the center of political controversy in Israel. In a speech to Herut supporters he drew an analogy between the present day status of Elon Moreh and Ariel, another West Bank settlement, and that of Nahariya, the Jewish town north of Acco, 30 years ago.
Nahariya had been allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 United Nations partition plan and although it soon came under Israeli military control some Israeli ministers regarded it for a time as “occupied territory.” Noting that today the town was an integral part of the State of Israel, rather that “occupied territory,” Shamir added: “Yesterday Nahariya, today Elon Moreh and Ariel.”
This was Shamir’s only departure from the political neutrality imposed on him as Speaker of the Knesset. As he said in his opening remarks, he was really only permitted to express the consensus view of Israeli politicians. Despite all the party fighting, he said Israel’s consensus opposed withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would be a “gathering place of all the anti-democratic elements, from the guards of Khomeini to the soldiers of Castro.”
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