FBIS Coverage of the Middle East Peace Talks- 1978 September

PPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS DIVISION AR 70-14 13NOV201
V. 5 Sep 78 N 3 ISRAEL
There will never be a war again between us and the Egyptian nation, to which we wish all
the best. Let us extend a hand to each other and let us agree to conduct negotiations
toward the signing of a peace treaty, without anger and without drastic interruptions.
The Americans conducted negotiations about the solution of the Panama Canal problem for
14 years. The negotiations on the end of the war in Vietnam lasted 4 years. I am not
talking in terms of years; but we certainly do need a reasonable period of time, several
months, to conduct negotiations--[this is] true--for peace and on the conditions for peace. }
I suggest to you, Mr President of Egypt, let us decide at Camp David that after this
conference there will be negotiations which will take place for several months on a daily
basis, except Friday and Saturday, and we shall deal with the conditions for peace until
both of us--all of us, our cabinets--will be able to bring the message to our nations:
the wars have ended, we have signed peace treaties, we shall live in peace, we shall help
each other--one nation will help the other--and bring a blessing not only on ourselves,
not only on this area, but also to other nations.
We shall definitely safeguard our nation-s security and its vital interests. We shall
safeguard our nation in Eretz Yisralel because in this cruel world, from Czechoslovakia
through to Lebanon, we not only can, but must say: If we are not for ourselves, who will
be?
The situation in Lebanon: I shall say a few words very briefly. We shall not reconcile If
ourselves 'to genocide. We have stood by the persecuted Christian minority in Lebanon, a
minority which is being slaughtered by tanks and artillery--its men, women and children-;
and we shall continue to stand by it. It would be inconceivable that we, with our ex-
perience, would take in our stride--as other nations do--such a massacre, a genocide. We
hope that soon a cease-fire will be enforced in Lebanon, and the Christian minority and
the Moslem majority will be able to live [together], because a minority has exactly the
same right to exist as the majority. Just as we apply this principle in ourkown lives,
we shall insist on it also where our neighbors are concerned.
Now citizens, with your permission, let us turn to our affairs at home. Yesterday the
school year began, and we saw Israeli school children going to school in good spirits with
their briefcases. More than a million children and youths resumed classes. How we were
proud of them--our hope, our finest, our beloved ones. Thank God that we lived to be
blessed with such a wonderful generation.
On the eve of our departure for Camp David, I understand that over the heads of these
hundreds of thousands of pupils in elementary schools and in high schools looms the
threat of the suspension of classes. I call this evening on all the teachers: please,
good citizens, do not take away teaching from the children of Israel. Do not bring about
the closure of schools. I was a teacher, albeit a private tutor, but I know that a teacher
lives, as a rule, modestly and frugally. It is the tradition of Israel to honor the
teacher and the rabbi more perhaps than in any other nation. How does our adage go? Even
if you learned a single letter--that would be enough. Here, nevertheless, there is this
threat of a strike. What shall we do if we cannot--and I am saying this, knowing the
facts--raise your salary by more than 15 percent?