President Yitzhak Navon indicated that Israel may consider negotiating with the Palestine Liberation Organization if the PLO would change the article in its covenant which calls for the destruction of the Jewish State. But until such action is taken, Navon said the consensus opinion within Israel remains that the PLO is “an organization of terror” with which Israel will not conduct negotiations.
According to Navon, who addressed some 500 people at a United Jewish Appeal luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel here yesterday, Israel would have to “take into consideration” any change in the PLO covenant. The some 33 articles of the PLO covenant call for the “liberation of Palestine” and the “elimination” of Zionism in Palestine through “armed struggle” and “revolution.”
The Israeli leader, whose address to the UJA luncheon was part of a four-day visit to New York which concludes tomorrow, reiterated what he termed were the “common denominators” of the political platforms of the various parties in Israel. Throughout his visit to the United States, during which he met with President Reagan in Washington last week and with Jewish groups there, in Boston and New York, Navon spoke of consensus issues and dealt gingerly with controversial topics affecting Israeli-U.S. relations.
In his address to the UJA gathering, Navon said both the ruling Likud coalition government and the opposition Labor Alignment share the same views on the following: that a return to the pre-1967 borders is Unacceptable; that the PLO is a terrorist organization; that the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank would pose a security threat to the State of Israel and also act as a base for Soviet intervention into the region; and that Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of Israel.
SAYS EGYPT RENEGED ON AGREEMENT
On the subject of Israeli-Egyptian relations, which he described as “frozen,” Navon charged that Egypt has reneged on its agreements signed with Israel as part of the Camp David process. He indicated that these agreements include normalization issues such as trade and tourism.
Beyond normalization, Egypt recalled its Ambassador to Israel, Saad Mortada, last September following the massacre of Palestinians at the Shatila and Sabra refugee camps by Christian Phalangist forces, and, coupled with the continuing dispute over the Taba region on Sinai, relations between the two countries have deteriorated significantly, the President noted.
Navon affirmed, however, that he thinks Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak “basically” seeks peace. But he said that if the accords between Israel and Egypt represented a “model for peace” that Israel can expect with its other Arab neighbors in the future, then, he added, “I don’t think it will be a very encouraging example.” He said that just as there can be cold war policies between two nations, there can also be a state of “cold peace.”
Before arriving in New York on Sunday evening Navon spoke that afternoon to some 2,500 people at a suburban Boston synagogue where he informed the audience he had told President Reagan earlier that the consensus in Israel is that Israel cannot return to the pre-1967 borders because they presented a risk to the safety and survival of the state.
STRESSES JEWISH UNITY
On Monday, Navon, accompanied by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Yehuda Blum and Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Moshe Arens, spoke to some 1,200 students and faculty members at Yeshiva University. He stressed the theme of Jewish unity and the continued importance of education to help resolve some of Israel’s pressing problems.
Navon was presented with a leather-bound copy of a catalogue from the university museum’s current exhibit, “Raban Remembered,” which includes some 300 works of the long forgotten Jerusalem artist, Zeev Raban. Mounted on the catalogue was a mother of pearl medallion made by students of the President’s father, Yosef Navon, who taught handicrafts at the Alliance Israelite Universalle schools in Jerusalem in the early 1900s.
On Tuesday, Navon addressed some 500 high school and college students at the Roosevelt Hotel here in a meeting sponsored by the University Service Department of the American Zionist Youth Foundation. Earlier, he addressed faculty, students and lay leaders on the relationship between American Jews and Israel at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish institute of Religion’s Brookdale Center.
RECEIVES MEDALS OF HONOR
Today, Navon was awarded the President’s Medal of the City University of New York Graduate School. The medal, Inscribed “Yitzhak Navon, President, State of Israel, Scholar, Humanitarian, Statesman” is in recognition of Navon’s accomplishments as an author, scholar and linguist, in addition to his international stature as an Israeli leader, according to the Graduate Center. He delivered a formal address following the private presentation of the medal.
Tomorrow, Navon will address in Hebrew over 1,000 yeshiva and day school students from throughout the metropolitan New York area at the Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, sponsored by the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York. Navon will be presented with a Scroll of Honor for his “endless activity for the unity of our nation in the Holy Land.”
MEANINGFUL LIFE THROUGH ALIYA
Navon spoke at the Kehilath Jeshurun on Sunday night at which time he urged more than 1,000 people “to elevate themselves by moving to Israel.” At a gathering sponsored by the Israel Aliya Center and the North America Aliya Movement, Navon said:
“Life is more than an endless pursuit after microwave ovens, ice cube making machines and sit down lawnmowers. Life must be made meaningful, and there is no greater contribution a Jew can make to his people, his history, and his soul than going to live in Israel.”
Navon was greeted on Monday by Mayor Edward Koch and other city officials and dignitaries. He held private meetings with the Mayor and Governor Mario Cuomo. He is scheduled to lunch with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and also with United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar. He addressed a private meeting of editors and conducted an off-the-record discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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