Three weeks before the arrival in Washington of Prime Minister Begin, the Carter administration stated publicly that for Israel to exclude automatically any administered area, including the West Bank, from negotiations with the Arabs, would be contrary to "the principle of negotiations without preconditions." The statement was a reaction to a speech by Senator Javits that Israel could not be secure by returning to the 1967 boundaries. This elicited an explanation of the Carter administration policy.
We believe strongly that progress toward a negotiated peace in the Middle East is essential this year if future disaster is to be avoided. We also believe that the only true security for any country in that troubled area is a true peace negotiated between the parties.
Fortunately we do not begin our efforts in a vacuum. A starting point exists in U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 of November, 1967, which all the governments involved have accepted. The United States policy since 1967 has consistently sought to apply the principles agreed in that resolution through the process of negotiations called for in Security Council Resolution 338 of October, 1973, which all the parties have also accepted.
The peace foreseen in these resolutions requires both sides to the dispute to make difficult compromises. We are not asking for one-sided concessions from anyone.
The Arab States will have to agree to implement a kind of peace which produces confidence in its durability. In our view that means security arrangements on all fronts, satisfactory to all parties, to guarantee established borders and steps toward the normalization of relations with Israel.
That peace, to be durable, must also deal with the Palestinian issue. In this connection, the President has spoken of the need for a homeland for the Palestinians, whose exact nature should be negotiated between the parties. Clearly, whatever arrangements were made would have to take into account the security requirements of all parties involved.
Within the terms of Resolution 242, in return for this kind of peace, Israel clearly should withdraw from occupied territories. We consider that this resolution means withdrawal on all three fronts in the Middle East dispute - Sinai, Golan, West Bank-Gaza - with the exact borders and security arrangements being agreed in the negotiations.
These negotiations must start without any preconditions from any side. This means no territories, including the West Bank, are automatically excluded from the items to be negotiated. This strikes us as contradictory to the principle of negotiating without preconditions, nor does it conform to the spirit of Resolution 242, which forms the framework for these negotiations.
Every administration since 1967 has supported Resolution 242, and it has the widest international support as well.