It has become a custom for Israeli and German foreign ministers to exchange visits at least once a year. Mr. Dayan used his two day visit to Bonn to hold talks with Chancellor Schmidt as well as Foreign Minister Genscher. Germany, like other European nations, did not accept the Camp David process as the means by which to resolve the Middle East crisis. On the contrary, serious reservations were being made in Europe over this agreement. At a state dinner, Mr. Genscher explained the position of the Federal government in favour of self-determination for the Palestinians. This position was challenged by Mr. Dayan in the following address:
Mr. Foreign Minister Genscher, Madame Genscher, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Allow me to thank you all for the kind invitation extended to us to come here and for you to gather with us tonight. I want to thank you on behalf of Mrs. Dayan and my friends for the warm reception and hospitality that we enjoyed here.
Sometimes I think what simple relationship Israel could have with its friendly countries, had we not been involved in that conflict in the Middle East with wars, refugees and oil, almost all the complications that one can imagine. It is true that there is a drama in that, too, and those who watched last week President Sadat coming with his charming wife and beautiful daughter to Haifa, walking the streets and getting everybody, all the Israelis, excited, really, from the bottom of their hearts, realizing that here they really see the peace walking in the street after 30 years of fighting with the Arabs, could have felt it.
But where there are problems like we face now, in the Middle East, of course there are differences of views and different political approaches and interests of different countries. I must admit that the relationship between Israel and some countries of our best friends are now and again not that simple. You all listened to the Foreign Minister's authorized statement about the German policy towards the peace process and the conflict in the Middle East. It would be wrong if I wouldn't bring up the point which was mentioned by the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic and that is the right of the Palestinian Arabs for self-determination. It is true that the definition of the Foreign Minister about the Palestinian right for self-determination is qualified and requires the agreement of all parties concerned.
What more, I understand, according to the explanation given to me by the federal government during my talks in Bonn, that the exercise of the right of self-determination does not necessarily mean the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and that because the federal government has no intention of prescribing to anybody how to exercise the right of self-determination. I heard all the qualifications and reservations, but, Ladies and Gentlemen, the expression "right for self-determination" is and will be explained and interpreted by the Arabs and by many others as the right for establishing a Palestinian state. Now, what I want to say here about that is: the European Council which now and again issued statements about the policy of the European community never used this expression. It is only your country, maybe not for the first time, but only your country, which is using this expression now. This is in our opinion, and I speak only for my country, and I do not pretend to lecture or to criticize anybody, but being honest with you, I must say that this definition being expressed at this very moment, as we are sitting with the Egyptians negotiating and trying to solve the Palestinian-Arab problem, on the basis of the Camp David Accord over which we worked very hard.
We are very proud that after so many years we obtained an agreement, signed not only by the Israeli Prime Minister but by the Egyptian President, and by the American President. And of course, the question of self-determination was discussed there. And it has been agreed to avoid the expression "self-determination" in order to avoid the Palestinian state, and President Sadat signed it. And what's more, just the other day President Carter said in public that of all the heads of Arab states he met, none recommended the establishment of a Palestinian state. And here we shall find ourselves in a position that your country, within qualifications making it conditional that the other party, that is to say Israel, would agree to it is, still introducing this terminology which is very meaningful and I know exactly how it will be interpreted by the Arabs: that you support the Palestinian right to establish a Palestinian state there.
The policy of the federal government was explained and stated by your Foreign Minister and what I want to do in a very short way is to explain the main elements of our policy in connection with the peace process, which is taking place now. I want to mention only a few points, which I think are the main points in our policy of the negotiations for an agreement with the Arab countries. The first one is already being implemented and that is the peace treaty with Egypt. And here, we fully agree with you. Neither we nor the Egyptians consider this treaty between Israel and Egypt as a separate agreement. We take it to be the first step for a comprehensive peace treaty between Israel and all Arab countries around us. What I want to say about the peace treaty with Egypt is that if you want to turn into reality the piece of paper that you worked out in Camp David or somewhere, you do approach difficulties and problems and this is happening with us, too. But I want to tell you, and I'm sure that you will share my satisfaction about it, that none of these problems were created by the Egyptians or by ourselves. Therefore, I have no doubt that we will be able to overcome them because both parties want to carry out the agreement. So, if what they agreed about, when they wrote the paper, cannot be done exactly the same way, they shall find another way how to do it, we shall do it.
Now the second point is about the problem of the Palestinian Arabs. Our policy about them is: number one, to provide the Arab inhabitants of Judaea, Samaria and the Gaza strip with full autonomy, to withdraw our military administration from there, to let them administer themselves and at the same time to ensure the security of Israel. It goes together. We don't want to interfere in their lives. We want to withdraw our military administration, but we want to preserve our security and therefore, it has been agreed by the Egyptians, by ourselves, and by the Americans, that the Israeli forces will stay on the borders, along the River Jordan, until we reach a final peace treaty which will define also the agreements about the military forces.
Now, that brings me to the second point in that agreement. When I said "until the time that we reach a peace treaty," I meant that we agreed to have a transitional period of five years for this autonomy. The autonomy is not the final work. It is not the final status, it is an interim period, during which we want to get out our soldiers from the Arab cities, to let them elect their own administrative council, and to take care of their life. And our forces will be stationed somewhere at the border but not interfering with their life. But already three years, after the beginning of that period, we want to start negotiating about the final status of the Arabs, and that has been agreed by the parties that signed the Camp David Accord and, it is very important, and I want you to listen to it exactly the way I put it: the final status, that is to say the peace treaty, will not be between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs but between the State of Israel and the State of Jordan. It has been recognized and agreed by all the parties: by President Sadat, by President Carter and by Prime Minister Begin, that the neighbouring state is not going to be a Palestinian state. The neighbouring state with whom we have to reach a peace treaty and to agree about the boundary is going to be Jordan, and this has been signed by President Anwar Al-Sadat. In other words, there is no room left in this agreement for an option of another state. The agreement which we are negotiating about speaks about autonomy to the Palestinian Arabs. To create a transitional period, but after five years we have to agree about the boundaries where Israel ends and where the next state starts and the next state is not the Palestinian but Jordan. Therefore, the peace treaty is to be concluded with Jordan. Their delegation may include representatives of the Palestinian Arabs, but talking about states, the agreement is very clear that there will be Israel and next to it Jordan. Where the boundaries will be, this is subject to negotiations. And these negotiations will be conducted at the end of the transitional period, after five years. So, now we have time to do it. As we don't want the peace treaty with Egypt to stay alone, we want the Palestinian Arabs to come next within the autonomy agreement and we do hope that Jordan will join in, too.
About Syria, I don't know. I wouldn't dare to say that there we see any kind of sign that Syria would join in negotiations. But about the Palestinian Arabs and about Jordan we are hopeful, but cannot speak on their behalf.
In order to achieve the agreement we do ask all the countries that seek peace in the Middle East to encourage the Arab countries, to encourage the Palestinians, to encourage Jordan, to encourage Saudi Arabia, to support the peace process and not to object to it. Maybe there could be better and different suggestions, but Ladies and Gentlemen,. I happen to be here tonight, while we are already in the process of making peace. Two years ago it was just a hope that we shall reach a peace treaty with Egypt. Now it is a fact to be implemented and already moving from the paper to the ground. We started also the negotiations about the Palestinian Arabs and we expect your country and all the other European countries to give a hand to encourage President Sadat and to encourage the Palestinians and the Jordanians to come to the negotiation table without any preconditions but within the Camp David Accords, and to reach an agreement about how we can live together. I hope that we will manage to do it, with your help.
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I ask you to join me in a toast to your Chancellor, to the Foreign Minister and to the deepening of the relationship, the friendship and the understanding between our two countries. Thank you.