Navon to Diaspora Jewry: Get Involved with Israel but Stay out of Its Defense, Foreign Affairs

President Yitzhak Navon made a strong plea for the close involvement of Jewish diaspora communities in Israel’s affairs but suggested that they stay out of the country’s defense and foreign affairs. Addressing 100 American and Canadian Jewish leaders representing the State of Israel Bonds National Campaign Cabinet who arrived in Israel Monday for an intensive three-day round of conferences with Israeli government officials on urgent peace needs, Navon said: “It will be our children who might have to go to the battlefield and not yours.”

Navon told the meeting, presided over by New York Israel Bonds chairman Howard Samuels, that he rejected the idea that “Israel had no right or never had the right to settle here or there. This is rejected by everyone in the country.” According to Navon, the problem was whether Israel should exercise this right.

He noted that on many vital issues, many friends of Israel will not always be convinced that the policy of the Jewish State is correct. However, he said, they nevertheless had an obligation to study and understand the policy of Israel. Navon expressed concern lest Jewish communities abroad separate themselves from Judaism and Jewish identity. He stressed the value of Jewish education in the diaspora in maintaining Jewish identity and viewed aliya as a vital instrument in this undertaking.

TREATY WITH EGYPT NOT ONE-SIDED

Navon said he disagreed with those who said Israel gave everything in the treaty with Egypt and got nothing in return. “Whatever the results of the negotiations,” he said, “it will no longer be taboo to speak to Israel. If Egypt were to say ‘no recognition’ but we will give you the oil you need — I am not sure that it would be more important than recognition in the context of the Mideast.”

Asked for his opinion on the necessity of the occupied territories for Israel’s security, Navon quoted a statement of his at the time he was still a Knesset member. “I was quoted as saying that I was for a territorial compromise in all territories — and that the compromise should exclude only the mast essential territories for the defense of Israel.”

Yehuda Avner, advisor to Premier Menachem Begin, reviewed the current mood in Israel in the wake of the peace treaty with Egypt and greeted the delegates on behalf of Begin. Samuel Rothberg, general chairman of the Israel Bond Organization, and Michael Arnon, president and chief executive officer of the organization are heading the delegation.