Defense Minister Moshe Dayan indicated last night what Israel’s borders would be if a general peace settlement was reached in the Middle East at this time. “Jerusalem will be divided no more nor will Nathanya be endangered from the East,” he told a meeting of the organization of civilian employes of the armed services.
“There will be no Egyptian enclave in the Gaza Strip nor will the Straits of Eilat be in foreign hands,” he said. His remarks indicated that he envisaged Israel’s permanent retention of at least parts of the former Jordanian territory closest to Israel’s Mediterranean coast town of Nathanya before the Six-Day War. He implied the same for eastern Sinai and Sharm el-Sheikh which controls the Straits of Eilat (Tiran).
Dayan said that Israel stood at the threshold of a new era marked by a continuing cease-fire and the withdrawal of Soviet forces from active involvement in Egypt. The main test facing Israel is not so much official relations with the Arab states but human relations with the Arabs of the administered territories, he said.
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.
