Israeli Minister Without Portfolio Haim Landau expressed confidence today that Egypt will sign a peace treaty with Israel. “I believe that (Egyptian President Anwar) Sadat will endorse our peace plan and will sign a bilateral treaty,” he said, in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “For the time being he hopes to squeeze a little more if he can.”
The Minister noted that Israeli Premier Menachem Begin sent a letter yesterday to Sadat urging him to reconvene the peace negotiations and that Israel is now awaiting Egypt’s counter-proposals.
Landau, a longtime close aide of Begin, stressed that “We live in tough times and we shall face tough times in the future.” He said the news media does not reflect the true situation in Washington or in Israel. “Headlines such as that Mr. Begin should resign are the initiatives of a few Americans sitting in Israel for the past few weeks to lobby Israel public opinion that Begin is intransigent,” he said.
The U.S. and Israel can disagree because “we are friends,” Landau stressed. “We are right and they are wrong in respect to our peace plan.” He said he was optimistic about Israel’s relations with President Carter.
Concerning the dispute with the U.S. over United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, Landau said the resolution “is not the relevant problem, but our security is. We accept 242 as a basis for negotiations. If we withdrew from Samaria and Judaea what effect would this have on our security?”
Answering his own question, he said “there will be an Arafat state using Soviet Katyusha (rockets)….The Soviets will be there and when we shall move the army against them we shall be in trouble. Therefore, should we accept President Carter’s proposal that will mean collective suicide for Israel and we are not ready to commit suicide.”
Landau declared that Israel’s “security cannot be based on Arab good will or anyone’s guarantees. After the Holocaust, the conspiracy of silence, after 50,000 Christians were killed in Lebanon, how can we as a people ‘live in mortal danger’ as (Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew) Brzezinski said. Appeasement never leads to peace, but to Munich.”
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