230 Address to Israel Bonds Leaders by Foreign Minister Dayan- 23 January 1979

I think that we all have to be aware of the fact that something is going on now in the Middle East. Of course, it is very obvious what is taking place, and has taken place already in Iran. Though we cannot say for certain how it will end up, but we can already see the direction and the tendency of what is happening there. And a little bit of it in Turkey, and in other Arab countries. But what I want to say about it is that it isn't just what is happening or already has happened in Iran, but the impact that it has on the other Arab countries, which may be that nothing will really happen there.

I'm talking about Saudi Arabia and about Jordan and about Egypt. Maybe - and Sudan. And Morocco. I don't know. Not only that I'm not sure, but there is no reason really to say that something similar to what happened in Iran might happen there. But what we have to recognize is not what we think about it. But how they feel about it, really spreading towards all of the Arab countries. There is no question about that.

And it started with the meeting in Baghdad where Saudi Arabia did lean toward the radical Arab countries. And did not really extend the support and the backing to Egypt and to the United States the way that they were expected to. Not at all. As a matter of fact, President Sadat was very disappointed with the unhelpful attitude of the Saudis during that meeting. And that was not the end of it. If we watched closely the feeling of those Arabs, including Egypt, we see that they are very worried about the influence and the impact and what might happen in their own countries. For different reasons - and I'll not go into -what is similar and what took place in Iran and what is different and what is the relationship between the two. But the fact is that it is really very influential what is going on now.

What I want to say in a very general way is that on one hand the West, and probably most of all the United States, has to really appreciate the ability and the tendency of the regimes in these countries, and I'm sure that they are doing that. They have to give another thought and we have to give another thought of what kind of a Middle East we might see in a few years' time - or that we will have to face even within a short time.

At the same time, it isn't just. that the West - that is to say, America, the European countries, ourselves - are giving a new look to those countries and trying to think ahead what might happen there. But it is also the other way around. That those countries, the people who are heading those countries, they also look towards the West and to the United States of America. And they are making new appreciations of how helpful the United States of America can be in order to insure for them the stability of the present leaderships there. With the view of what happened in Iran, and I'm not criticizing anybody. I don't know and I don't think that the U.S. could have done more or anything at all in Iran. But maybe the illusion and the assumption of the heads of State in those countries was that, well we have such close relationships with the West and the United States and they need us, and our policy is part of their policy -so of course they are going to support us and to ensure the present regime, which did not happen, and probably could not have happened at all.

So it goes both ways. We have to look and to see what might happen there and to ask ourselves whether we were right in taking for granted the stability of the regime in those countries. And they are taking a new look and asking themselves whether they were right in believing that their stability would be ensured because of their relationships and the importance of their country to the West. So it goes both ways.

When it comes to us and to negotiations for peace, we have to recognize and realize that the party that we are dealing with - the Arab parties, not the United States of America: The Arab parties with which we are dealing - are much more careful now. To say the least, in making a separate peace treaty with Israel. They feel much stronger now about ensuring the other Arab countries that they will not depart from the Arab countries' family, and will not be isolated and will not forsake the Arab world. In other words, that if at all President Sadat was ready before, if - and it is a big if - to make a separate peace with Israel, a Peace Treaty about Sinai and the relation between Israel and Egypt, and to lay the foundation for the solution for the Palestinian Arabs, now I think he is looking for a stronger linking between the two. Mainly because he wants to prove to the Arab countries that he is not trying to walk out and to break away from the Arab countries. But he is really trying to share the Arab cause and not just to look after his own interests, the territories, Sinai and so on.

This is a general formula. But when it comes to business and we have to sit down with the Egyptians and negotiate about what will happen in the Gaza Strip or in Judea, Samaria and the West Bank and Jerusalem and its surroundings, it has a very meaningful result and implications. So I think that the coming period about the negotiations with Arab countries will be under the impact of what is going on around us. We cannot avoid it or ignore it. And that will not make things either easier or simpler. Not at all.

Now, when it comes to us, ourselves, to Israel, we also have to try to see the future. And I should say that we have to make clear mainly three points in connection with the negotiations to get a picture here. The first is about the relationship with the Arab people. With the Arab countries as neighbors. But what is more immediate is with the Arab people with whom we have to live together. Those who live here in Jerusalem and in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We have to make it clear to ourselves and to them too. And I wouldn't hesitate saying it in public like here at this meeting - we are looking for ways to live together with them on equal grounds. With full rights to them just like to our own people.

But if their tendency would be that they don't want to live together with us on equal grounds, like the voices that we are hearing no. Even from the Arab students studying in the Hebrew University, and some Arab circles and leaders here - talking about a Palestinian State and their rights, not to be a part of Israel or not to be just neighbors who share their lives with us together - if they will not be satisfied and if they don't want to live together with us, then I say they will have to pay for it. They will have to pay for it very dearly if they will try to materialize what they are talking about now. If they will be carried away with a wave of the fanatic Islamic mood that is going around, then they had better remember and have in mind what happened with the Arab people in 1948, who had the chance to live with us in peace, not to have a war. To have at that time a separate Palestinian-Arab State, and they were not satisfied with that and said: "No, what we want is the entire country. And we don't want to be a Jewish State and we don't want to live with them in Haifa. We want them, the Jews, to leave Haifa. And we don't want to live with them in Jaffa, in Tel Aviv. We want to take over the entire area." So they find themselves now, some of them, as refugees in Lebanon and that should serve as a lesson.

We are not the Shah and we are not foreign rulers here. We are people who live here who want to live with them on equal grounds. And I think this is the only way for us and for them. And if what is going around, that kind of a mood, will affect their frame of mind and will affect our sincere attempt to reach not only a Peace Treaty with neighboring Arab countries, but also an honorable, just solution of way of life together with the Arabs here. If they will reject that and will try to replace Israel by the Arab-Islamic concept, then they have to realize that they might pay very, very dearly for that. It won't work with us. They have to know it and I want you to know that there is no question about that.

There is only one way now, only one way. Never mind what is going on around us. It is for Jews and Arabs to live together, side by side in Jerusalem, in Gaza, in Hebron, in the West Bank, and the Jordan Valley.

As far as we are concerned, we have now, of course, to be more careful when we deal with the negotiation about our oil resources. Before we leave the oil fields in Sinai, to be sure that we have a proper substitute for that. We cannot just go back out of there and ignore the question of where we should get our oil from. We have to be sure about our defense and about our being in the right place. And what I mean by that is by having more Israeli Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley, in the West Bank. In the Jordan Valley to increase the number there because there are too few and there have to be more of them. More people. More settlement. And in a more compact way so that they can form a larger group there. And the same thing goes with those which we have near the Gaza Strip and in Samaria.

I know that we are not at all in agreement about that with the Administration of the United States of America and there are also different views about it among different parties in Israel and maybe in the United States too. But at this time we have to think seriously where are we going to be and what would be the shape of the country and how can we defend the country and defend ourselves. This is the only answer that I know. And as I believe that most of the people in this country hear about, including the Labour Party which just now is in the opposition, and the Government, the Coalition: That as far as we are concerned we just have to stay in the Jordan Valley, along the Jordan River - and to stay means including Israeli settlement there. And the same thing about the Golan and the same thing about the Military action for self-defense.

The other problem related to the present situation and also affecting the negotiations for peace has got to do with our military forces and our now and again military operations on the other side of the border. As retaliation or defense measure against the PLO coming from Lebanon. Just this morning they opened fire with Katyushas on some Israeli settlements here in the Northern part of the Galilee. And while we are sitting here they are sitting in the shelters there. Men, women and children there, because they were under fire this morning. I mention that because whenever the Arabs put some traps or mines or blow up a car in the market, in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, none of the Arab countries or our partners for negotiations for peace, the Egyptians, say a word. This is just normal. But when we hit and strike back, they say: "Well. You are really putting an obstacle to the peace negotiations" and all these kinds of things. And it isn't just them. Now and again it is also our friends in the Administration who are dealing with the negotiations.

So now and again we do not agree. Not only about Israel settlement, but also about military measures that we are taking. And apparently the general thought is that it seems to be a normal thing that in Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv any morning something might blow up and that is the normal way that the Israeli ambulance will rush there and that some wounded and some killed and that's it. And if Israeli soldiers go to the PLO camps on the other side of the border to destroy and to kill the murderers before they do that, then this is illegal and it becomes an obstacle to the peace negotiations.

To put it simply. We cannot avoid it. We have to defend ourselves and cannot stop it. And no one else will take care of us. Including the United Nations Forces which are there - and I am sure that they are sent by their countries with the best of motivations. But they cannot really provide a proper defense to Israel and whether it will make the negotiations more difficult or not, we have not only to go on with our lives. But to put the fact in such an obvious way that the other party, when they negotiate peace with us, will know where they stand with us and where they stand with us is that we do not mean to commit suicide or to belittle ourselves or to withdraw from the West Bank or to stay helpless against the PLO. So we want to make peace. But we want to make such a peace that we will be able to go on with our lives the way that we are. And not to be attacked without being allowed to take care 'of ourselves.

Not only that I don't think that this is an obstacle to the negotiations for peace. On the contrary, I think that just the way that we have to realize that for Sadat now it is much more difficult to make a separate peace with us. And we have to realize that his problem now is also his relationship with the other Arab countries. In the very same way they have to realize that when around us in the Islamic world is happening what is happening, that Israel also has challenges that we have to meet. About oil and about defense and about where we would be and what will happen next in Jordan. Who can assure us that King Hussein of Jordan will not be replaced by some Moslem fanatic or some element of the PLO? Can we really rely on King now and say, "Well, we shouldn't worry on that front because on the other side we have a moderate King?" I don't know what moderate now is. It will be a durable peace and a shared negotiation. Each party has to understand not only the position but the problems of the other party. We have to understand Sadat's party and he has to try to see there is no point for us to try to hide it. That goes about settlement and about military action for our defense even if it is across the borders.

Our relationship with the United States of America. I repeated it and I have been saying it time and again and I want to say it again, that I think that they are very helpful in the negotiations.

Of course they are not just an honest broker. They have their own interests and they are not living in a vacuum and they have to see about the Western policy and so on. This is understandable. But saying all that they are very helpful and I do not believe that there is any chance for us to reach a Peace Treaty without the deep involvement of the American Administration and the American people in that, by undertaking some commitment on themselves. Probably more economic aid when it comes to Egypt, but not only economic aid.

But when I talk about the immediate situation around us and the conclusion that we draw about our action, what we should and what we shouldn't do, I want to say that I am very glad that all through our short history of 30 years, that we always looked for help from the United States. But only by the way of providing us with arms and with economic and with political aid. But not by fighting for us. Not by sending their soldiers to fight for us. Not by posting American troops around us to take care of Israel. That was in the past and even more so now, and in the future. With everything going on around us and with the fact that we have to be very careful and to try to think very hard about not only today's world, but also about tomorrow's world. Still the solid basis for our relationship with America and for our defense here is that we shall take care of ourselves and we shall try to keep the closest relationship that we can with the United States of America. To be as helpful as we can when they ask us, directly or indirectly, for any kind of partnership.

We are more than willing to be a part of the Western world's policy-making here. No question about that. And in any way that the Americans and the American Government think and feel that we can be of help in the present situation. We shall be more than forthcoming. And we not only try to understand their position, but also we try to help them to carry out their policy, even if sometimes it is not exactly our policy. But we are not alone. We are part of a bigger party of the working world now. The way that things are divided in Africa and in the Middle East.

But there is one point which should be very clear to us and to them. And this is that when it, comes to the actual defense of Israel, the military, the personal one, then that we shall do by ourselves. We would like to be helped economically, politically, militarily by obtaining arms from the United States. But it will be our forces and our decision, where to station and when to take some action here or on the other side of the border, because this is our life and we want to defend ourselves and we believe that this is the only way to obtain good and friendly relationship with the United States of America.