Toon Warns Against Palestinian State

Malcolm loan, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and , until his retirement this month, the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, warned here that it would be a “terrible mistake” to establish a Palestinian state adjoining Israel.

Speaking and replying to questions at the Tel Aviv University’s Center for Strategic Studies, the American career diplomat warned that a Palestinian state on the West Bank would pose a serious threat to Israel’s security because the Soviets could easily turn it into a Russian base and “run the whole show.”

Toon said that in his opinion, the U.S. and Israel would be unwise to maneuver themselves into a position in which there would be no alternative but to set up a state for the Palestinians. He acknowledged, however, that the Soviet Union will have to be involved as an active party at some point in the negotiations for a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. The Soviets are a political, military and economic force in the Mideast that won’t go away, he said. “The Soviets are here to stay and we must take account of them when negotiating a peace agreement”

Toon noted that they also have legal status as a party to Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and as co-chairmen of the Geneva conference. According to Toon, Russian policy in the immediate future will be to continue what he termed an obstructionist role, to continue to isolate Egypt from the rest of the Arab world and try to draw closer to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. At the same time, however, Russia will not attempt a major effort to disrupt peace because their allies “would be clobbered by Israel,” he said.

Toon said he did not believe Soviet policy would change until Moscow is convinced that the autonomy talks will succeed. At that point, they might consider reopening their channels of communications with Israel, he said. He described Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev as a sick man who functions with great difficulty and sometimes does not reply to the point.