Labor Minister Yitzhak Rabin believes that the disengagement negotiations with the Syrians will be tough, prolonged and accompanied by threats of war and acts of war. In an interview in Maariv, the former Ambassador to the U.S. said that President Hafez Assad of Syria cannot permit himself to achieve less than President Anwar Sadat achieved–an Israeli withdrawal from the lines established In the Six-Day War.
As to Sadat, Rabin suggested that the political aims of the Egyptian President have not changed–the evacuation of every inch Israel occupied in 1967 and the return of the rights to the Palestinians. Now he tries to achieve them through the U.S. by political means but he reserves the full military option through the Soviet Union, Rabin warned. If disengagement is achieved with the Syrians, Sadat would demand the immediate withdrawal of Israel.
Rabin stated that Sadat can not only threaten to start war but he can actually start war both by mobile battles in Sinai and by hitting Israeli populated centers. The UN forces cannot prevent either of these moves, Rabin, a former Chief of Staff, said.
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