FBIS Coverage of the Middle East Peace Talks- 1978 September

PPROVED FOR LlEAE CIA HISTORICAL COLLQeTIONS DIVISION AR 70-14 13NOV 1
[Answer] I wouldntt want to give any exact predictions at the moment. People will havereservations, exceptions, they will be sorry, and they will argue. There is no doubt thatthis constitu~tes an essential change in the way of life of the State of Israel. There area number of very basic decisions that we have to make, both.from the public view and the
military view. The IDF, for example. I am returning home tomorrow. Be inninview afthe
tomorrow, we- shall sit down and see what the meaning o on dayafter .
has vast implications for the IDF, for all its arms, both on pthetical decision is. This
Some arms will be affected more, some less. There will certainly be arguments between
us, There will be the basic question the settlements in Sinaiw e
to decide; the Knesset will have to decide. Therewill.be argns The nation will have
question, really, is whether the settlement between us and theEgyptians will calso bring
in the Jordanians, perhaps also the Syrians, not today or tomorrow, perhaps the day after
tomcrrow. The question is whether we shall really consolidate one front that will be calm
for many years, how it will affect our econoy,the society, how it will affect the youth
that will develop in Israel.
I said earlier: The chief problem in the State of Israel is to consolidate a Jewish,Zionist, Israeli state, as you, Dan aetI desire. We all have questions and we allhave arguments and we have not found yet where we are erring, where we can improve, whereasw can do much healthier things, so that our nation can really be a light for the nationsas we would like, a light for us, not only for the goyyim, Quite often it is darknessalso for us. I hope that this move will bring about an essential change on the Egyptianfront. This does not only mean the Egyptian front from a purely military point of view,'of a tank versus tank and plane versus tank, but whether we really can find a commonlanguage with 40 million Egyptians, with all the risks and all the vast possibilities that
are contained in a common life in the Middle East region, from Gibraltar, North Africa,
Morocco and through to Bab al-Mandab, to Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. After all,we are 3 million in a huge edifice. Shall we be fighting all our lives? Maybe yes. If.so, please. But it is perhaps also worthwhile to try to see how it is possible to livehere. I thinkit .would be worthwhile to try, and we are in the process ofa trial. Thisprocess began here with the sign.ing of an agreement between the Israeli prime minister,the. president of Egypt and the President of the United States. The question is how weshall make use of it. I think that great possibilities are hidden in this.
[Question] The last question refers to the internal relations -in the Israeli Cabinet,Recently there has been talk of a certain disharmony.. You, too, have been mentioned inthat connected,. as Mr Disharmony. gow would 'you 'explain what' is happening at Camp pavidregarding the harmony and the coon work in view' of what is sin store now
wer] Everything is'tops. I ca evren say, in several spheres better than expected.Maybe it is the atmosphere. of trees all.around us';"We were hardly able to see' the sky,"all is green, the intimacy. But I thi.nk it is more than that. I think it is foremostthe feeling of the three of us t im nste, the a dand all the rest of the team, especially Dr Baraq, for example. 'Aharon Baraq, who: madean extraordinary contribution tc the entire subject. Major General Tamir, Me ir Rosenne,all the people who were sitting, and we were all the time together, we were eating,
talking, playing, thinking, fretting, worrying together, closed and locked up,
. I,