Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres said here that he is convinced that the negotiations now going on between the United States and the Soviet Union will lead to the ending of the harassment and humiliation of Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate to Israel. “We hope the gates of the USSR will open for the Jews in the foreseeable future,” Peres said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Peres, who was in Montreal to address the International Fall Leadership Conference of the Israel Bond Organization Saturday night, said it is reasonable to assume that the agreement will allow 50,000 Jews to emigrate annually and perhaps even more. He said the greatest task of Israel and the Jewish people is aliya, especially from the Soviet Union.
Turning to the Middle East, Peres declared that Israel wants to “make peace in one step with all” the Arab states. He said that “there is a slight reluctant tendency in Egyptian diplomacy toward this aim, and in the forthcoming negotiations Israel will willingly meet and support this aim.” But he said that at the same time Syria wants to resume the war and indications are that Damascus will refuse to agree to renewing the mandate for the United Nations forces separating Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights.
Peres said the announcement by France that she is lifting her arms embargo “carried more political weight than a technological answer to our needs.”
SIGNPOSTS OF ARAB WAR INTENTIONS
Addressing some 140 Israeli students at the Mount Royal Sheraton Hotel, Peres listed “several signposts” which he said made it obvious that the Arabs are preparing for another war against Israel. He said that, in response to this war threat, Israel is rebuilding and strengthening its armed forces and its border defenses. He said that there has been no meaningful change in American policy toward Israel since the new Administration took office in Washington and observed that the same considerations which affected the previous Presidency still exist.
Peres said the war-like signs from the Arabs included the present campaign being waged by terrorist organizations against Israel; the possible rejection by Syria of the extension of the United Nations role in the disengagement of forces agreement which ends this year; and rebuilding of Egypt’s armed forces.
Referring to the Palestinian question, the Defense Minister said the Arabs actually want the return of a large enough number of Arabs to Israel to change its character from a Jewish to a Palestinian state through supposedly democratic processes. Asked about Jewish settlement in the West Bank Judea and Samaria districts, Peres said there was no question of Israel’s right to settlement there, but the determination of when and where to settle must be made by the government.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
