Between Ismailiya and the beginning of the talks of the Political Committee, President Sadat and the Egyptian press began to issue demands upon Israel. One of them called Israel to liquidate its settlements in Sinai and the West Bank. Doubts were expressed in the Egyptian press over the readiness of Israel to move forward towards peace. The Egyptian demands prior to the negotiations aroused anger in Israel and this compelled the Prime Minister to again explain the position of his government on the peace issues. He said also that if the Israeli plan is not acceptable, there is always the possibility of withdrawing it. Excerpts:
I feel bound to open my address by responding to two pronouncements that were heard in recent days from across the border.
President Sadat announced that he will not tolerate the presence of Israeli civilian settlements following the signing of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
From this rostrum, let me say with all due respect and friendship to President Sadat, that such inflexibility and intransigence as expressed in the words "will not tolerate" cannot serve the peace-making process. We do not employ expressions of this kind since we want an agreement and the signing of a peace treaty.
I informed Sadat in Ismailiya that our army is in Sinai legitimately because the Six-Day War was, in the highest sense of the term, a war of legitimate defence. I had only just begun to cite the words "throw them into" when President Sadat, in Ismailiya, completed the phrase and said, "the sea." We both agreed that, in the summer of 1967, between 15 May and 5 June of that year, our people faced not only the danger of aggression, not only a threat to our independence, but also the danger of annihilation. On every side the call was: "Kill them, destroy them, throw them into the sea." There is, therefore, no vestige of doubt that the Six-Day War was a war of national self-defence.
In the wake of such a war, the armed forces remain in the place they stood on the day of the cease fire, or as fixed by any bi-lateral agreement, and it is only in a peace treaty that their final deployment is determined.
I went on and said to President Sadat in Ismailiya that according to international law, when a war of defence takes place, there exists the right of agreed territorial changes in a peace treaty. We proposed a compromise arrangement, that the Israeli settlements located in the Sinai borderlands or in the Rafiah approaches and along the Gulf of Eilat, will remain in place and will be defended by an Israeli defence force.
I said to President Sadat: We respect your principles and we trust that you will respect ours. And our principle is, in the light of our generation's experience, not to leave any Jewish settlement without an Israeli defence force. And they will be linked to the State of Israel's courts and administration. This is a compromise proposal that is fair and is supported by the United States and Great Britain. It is clear that this is our proposal.
If the Egyptian delegation rejects it, it is feasible that the Government of Israel will then decide to instruct [its delegation] in accordance with the great principle of international law which says if one party presents a proposal preliminary to discussions on a peace treaty and the other party does not accept it, then the first party has the right to declare that its proposal is no longer valid, a priori. In which case, the Israeli delegation would have the right, if the Government so decides, to insist upon the demand for territorial changes in the international boundaries in keeping with international law.
President Sadat said that Israel could dismantle or burn its settlements. I would suggest to him, again with respect, that Israel and Egypt agree to leave the monopoly for the burning of cities to the Roman Caesar Nero. Israelis do not burn settlements. They build and maintain them.
We therefore put forward our fair proposal. And we shall insist upon it when the detailed negotiations begin in the joint political committee and also, if the problem arises, in the joint military committee. It will begin its deliberations on Wednesday, in Cairo, in the framework of the military committee headed by the Minister of Defence and, in Jerusalem on the following Monday, in the political committee which, on our side, will be headed by the Foreign Minister.
One further summary remark: In the Knesset, in the presence of President Sadat, I declared: In the forthcoming negotiations between the two countries there must not be vanquished and victors; we shall speak to each other as equals.
I reiterate this call and, clearly, the attitude of no vanquished and no victors cannot but be reciprocal.