Schindler Offers Three Reasons Why Israeli-egyptian Accord is Inevitable

Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said here today that there were “three main reasons” why he believed an Israeli-Egyptian peace settlement is “inevitable” while acknowledging that the search for peace will be “long and arduous.” Schindler was received by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt at Aswan earlier this month and has also conferred recently with Premier Menachem Begin of Israel.

He said his talks with the two leaders convinced him that both Egypt and Israel “want peace, need peace and are determined to achieve peace despite the psychological barriers that must be overcome.” But, he said, his “cautious optimism” was based on three factors:

“Both President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin have a powerful personal commitment to peace” that “has not been weakened despite the difficulties that have arisen; both the Egyptian and Israeli people yearn for peace with an intensity that surprised even the leaders of the two countries”; and “the reasons that motivated President Sadat to take his initiative and Prime Minister Begin to respond are still present”–Egypt’s poverty and Israel’s defense burden and “the shared fear of both countries that no peace could be achieved at a Geneva peace conference attended by the spoilers and rejectionists and with active Soviet participation.”

Schindler, who was accompanied by Yehuda Hellman, executive director of the Presidents Conference, at the meeting with Sadat, described the Egyptian leader as “a man of great charm, obvious sincerity and unusual personal warmth” who “spoke candidly and listened carefully.” He also praised current American efforts to further the peace process for “being careful not to cross the line from mediator to arbitrator.”