Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would like to negotiate with Israel, “but they are scared,” Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told an audience here this week.
More than 130 Arabs in the territories have been assassinated since the intifada broke out on Dec. 9, 1987, for alleged collaboration with Israel, including 25 in the last month alone, according to Rabin.
The Israeli defense chief and former prime minister addressed the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of America, the congregational branch of Conservative Judaism, that was held here this week.
Rabin spoke at length of the prospects for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including the Palestinians. He stressed that the peace process must be incremental to succeed and that there can be no “open sesame” solutions.
“I believe the wisdom of the Camp David accord was to recognize that to try to move from the current situation to (a comprehensive) peace (settlement) in one step would lead to an explosion,” Rabin said.
Rabin acknowledged that for war and peace, Israel needs a broad national consensus which is lacking today.
“At present, we are divided on a permanent solution,” he said. “One camp believes in keeping the full Land of Israel. The other believes in keeping the Jewish state Jewish in (demographic) character. The permanent solution will be decided by democratic means.”
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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.
