Shmuel Katz, Premier Menachem Begin’s advisor on information and the man widely considered the ideologue of the Begin administration, said that Israel would give U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance “more material” aiming to prove to him that “Eretz Yisrael legally belongs to Am Yisrael.”
In a television interview in advance of the Vance visit, due to begin tomorrow, Katz also said the Israeli side would not want to talk substance with the Secretary, only procedure.
Regarding Eretz Yisrael, Katz noted what he termed “an advance” in the United States position. He said that a few days after President Carter had condemned Israel’s legalization of the three West Bank settlements, Vance, at a news conference, had acknowledged that Jordan’s legal rights over the West Bank were unclear.
Officials and observers here expressed immediate wonderment at Katz’s construction of Vance’s statement. They recalled that what Vance had in effect said was that if the rights of two parties–Jordan and the Palestinians–in the area were unclear, this gave no justification to a third party–Israel–to set up its settlements there.
Thus, said the officials and observers, if there was any “advance” in Vance’s statement it was in the direction of the Palestinians, implicitly equating their claim to the area to that of Jordan.
OFFICIALS TO MEET WITH VANCE
Meanwhile, the Cabinet received reports and assessments yesterday from Begin, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Ambassador Simcha Dinitz on Vance’s swing through the Middle East. There was a brief discussion, but according to reports, no differences emerged among the ministers.
Begin announced that the team of ministers who would meet with Vance would comprise himself, Dayan, Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, Finance Minister Simcha Ehrlich, Interior Minister Yosef Burg and Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon. While Vance is in Israel he is to participate in two working sessions at the Premier’s office and two with Dayan and his aides, attend a state banquet given by Begin and a reception hosted by Dayan.
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