Former Foreign Minister Yigal Allon told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that if the parties to the Camp David accords decide the time is not ripe to implement the Egyptian-Israeli agreement, “I would recommend an interim agreement with an Israeli withdrawal to the first phase of the proposed Sinai pullback–to a line from El Arish to Ras Mohammed–in return for termination of the state of war by Egypt.”
The former Deputy Premier also said that the people of Israel stood “united as never before” in rejecting Carter Administration pressure to accept demands that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat proposes for changes in the proposed Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. “I deplore the Administration’s actions and I know they have strengthened the resolve of the people of Israel to sign only a true peace,” Allon said.
“The American statements of recent days have inflicted great damage to the cause of Middle East peace,” Allon said. “They have encouraged the Egyptians to believe that by raising new demands they can get a better deal from Israel, but Israel will not submit to those demands and there will be no treaty as long as President Sadat persists in making them.”
Allon also assailed the role of Saudi Arabia in joining the confrontation states opposed to the Camp David accords. “This is the Saudi response to the Carter Administration’s policy of selling the most modern fighter-bombers in the American arsenal to the Saudi regime,” he said. “I should have thought, that, particularly in view of the turmoil in Iran, the Saudis would be Interested in promoting stability in the Middle East.”
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.
