Israel will agree with no interim arrangements with the Arab states but only to a peace agreement coupled with effective security arrangements. Minister of Labor Yigal Allon declared last night.
He urged the establishment of a Jewish presence in the Israeli-held west bank of the Jordan River in order to make the river the Israeli-Jordanian border. He stressed that the June war had given Israel “a historic chance to restore our historic border according to our rights and defense requirements.” Mr. Allon spoke at the convention of Hakibbutz Hameachud, a countrywide organization of collective settlements. The new security arrangements must include not only demilitarized zones on the Israeli-Arab borders but also supervised zones and new frontiers that would provide Israel with geographic depth and strategic deployment, making it easy to defend those borders, the Minister said.
Meanwhile, it was announced today that the entire Gaza Strip and the northern Sinai area from E1 Arish to Abou Aveila will be opened to visitors next week. The announcement was made by Col. Motta Gur, Israel’s military governor for the two occupied areas. Until now only the town of Gaza has been open to visitors.
Col. Gur said that there were still security problems stemming from “vast quantities” of firearms still held by Gaza Strip Arabs. He added that all efforts were being made to normalize life in the Strip but that these did not rule out measures to counter Arab infringements of security.
He said that, while destruction of houses where arms caches were found was “not an official policy,” there was no denying that it proved very effective. He said that after one house was blown up for that reason, 70 Arabs came to Israeli authorities to turn in firearms.
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.
