Documents / FOIA release
This is a Central Intelligence Agency release of Foreign Broadcast Information Service coverage of the Middle East peace talks from December 1977. It collects British, Israeli and Soviet press and radio items on President as-Sadat's initiative and the planned Cairo conference. It also covers Prime Minister Begin's visit to London, Secretary of State Vance's regional tour and the Knesset debate on the peace plan. It contains no material on unidentified aerial phenomena.
“Cairo”42 pages
PPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS DIVISION AR 70-14 13NOV201 V. 28 Dec 77 N 12 ISRAEL I am not surprised that now the government-has learned something that people want us to forget: that Egypt declared war--at least in the war of liberation--also because of the Palestinian issue. It wanted to harm the State of Israel. and it refused to con- clude peace negotiations with us because of this same issue. I must say that it insists--at least in public--on this position almost without any change, up to this moment. I am sure that the whole house appreciates As-Sadat's visit and expects that the Knesset and the Egyptian parliament will meet each other halfway with a new willingness and new positions. We also differ with the government's position because in some of the basic clauses we have a different point of departure and also because during the negotiations ex- perience has taught us that one has to adopt a different path than that adopted by the government. I first of all want to point out the differences in the points of departure. First, with our feelings for the inheritance of our forefathers, we must distinguish between an inheritance and a state. The land can always be an historical inheritance. However, the nature of the state is generally determined by the demographic situation therein, both in practice and in potential--that is to say, today and tomorrow, and we believe that the Jewish character of the State of Israel should be maintained in the present and in the future. The country's past will be changed by no one. It cannot be changed. However, the future of peace calls upon us to change the borders of the past. The Herut movement recognized this from the moment that it removed its demand for the eastern bank of the Jordan from its platform. We agreed to a partition in 1947. We avoided imposing Israeli law in 1967. We expressed a willingness to make a compromise in order to maintain Israeli sovereignty and have a real peace with the Arabs. A second point of departure is that every peace settlement must insure not only Israel's independence but also the independence of its defense. With or without a peace treaty we cannot refuse the coming generations the minimum territory required in order to defend ourselves, and on this lies our policy of defensible borders, settlements and territories. The settlements were established for this reason and this reason is still valid. Thirdly, we all honor our Arab neighbors--the Moslems, Christians and Druze. We honor the Arab desire to have their own independence, but just as in Arab countries there will be non-Arab minorities, so will there be a non-Jewish minority in the State of Israel. We have no desire to rule over Arab settlements outside Israel, just as we have no desire to oppress the Arab inhabitants living in Israel. Our fourth point of departure is our belief that the road to peace is the road of compromise--in government, in timing and in the field. However, there must be no compromise about the nature of peace. This is why we oppose the establishment of an additional Palestinian state between us and the Kingdom of Jordan. Such a state, rather than being a framework for Arab independence, will be a source of consistent aggressiveness and will supply fuel to the fires of war. Members of the Knesset, these assumptions have brought us to a number of tactical and diplomatic conclusions, some of which have been actively endorsed by the government. We said that we have to prepare the background to the Geneva conference or to a conclusive conference elsewhere. This has, in fact, been done. We said that a sub- stantive plan should bo coordinated with the United States, that we are convinced of the sincerity of its desire to aid peace in th.e Middle East. This advice has also been taken.
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 65 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.