Rabin Denies Israelis Divided over Basic Foreign Policy Issues

Farmer Premier Yitzhak Rabin has denied that the Israeli opposition and government are deeply split over foreign policy and forecast that, if Egypt re-entered peace negotiations, the Begin government would make appropriate gestures to show its goodwill to the Arabs.

The former Prime Minister and Labor Party leader spoke last night following sharp public disagreements here by other leading Israeli politicians. On Sunday, former Foreign Minister Yigal Allon made a blistering attack on the Begin government’s peace proposals when he addressed local Labor Zionist supporters. The next day, Ariel Sharon, Israeli Agriculture Minister, told a press conference at the Israel Embassy that Allon’s remarks were “the height of irresponsibility.” Rabin, while not criticizing Allon’s remarks, assured 500 workers of the Joint Israel Appeal that there was a national consensus on five main points:

These are, he said: that peace should lead to open borders and normal economic, cultural and diplomatic relations; Israel would not withdraw to the pre-1967 lines since that would invite another war; there should be “no Arafat state” in the occupied territories; no negotiations with the PLO; Jerusalem must remain united as the capital of Israel.

Rabin blasted the U.S. “package” sale of jets to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia as a breach of commitments first made to Israel by President Ford in 1975. The linkage was the first time that the United States had put Israel’s security on the same level as the security of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and thus a departure from previous U.S. assurances about America’s “special commitment” to Israel, he said.