Asserting that the war in Lebanon last summer with its “anguish and disagreements” has brought about significant improvements for the prospects of peace in the Middle East, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said here that it was now essential for Jordan to be brought into negotiations on the final status of the West Bank and Gaza.
But Kissinger said that negotiations between Israel and Jordan on the future status of the West Bank must not be “a subterfuge to introducing” the Palestine Liberation Organization into the talks nor as a means toward the establishment of an entity on the West Bank that would be dominated by the PLO.
Speaking to some 700 persons attending the annual American Jewish Congress Stephen Wise Awards dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel last Thursday night, Kissinger also said he did not believe an Israeli policy of annexation of the West Bank would be conducive to the peace process or add significantly to Israel’s future security needs.
According to Kissinger, Israel requires concrete security arrangements that go beyond only Arab recognition of the Jewish State. He said these arrangements must not place Arab populations under permanent Israeli control.
The former Secretary of State, in the course of a brief 20-minute address, also said that the war in Lebanon has strengthened U.S. influence in the region while simultaneously weakening the diplomatic standing of the Soviet Union. Kissinger noted that those nations of the so-called rejectionist front, Arab nations who absolutely reject the Camp David peace accords and any dealings with Israel, have also suffered significant defeats because they “have been shown to have slogans and no policies.”
The recipients of the AJCongress 1982 Stephen Wise Awards were: Max Fisher of Detroit, chairman of the Jewish Agency board of governors and a past president of the Council of Jewish Federations, for “half a century of extraordinary commitment and service to world Jewry”; and Howard Squadron, currently serving his third term as President of the AJCongress and past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, for “the outstanding leadership at a time of critical challenge to the American Jewish community.”
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