FBIS Coverage of the Middle East Peace Talks- 1978 September

PPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA ORICAL DIVISION AR 70-14 13N - V201
V. 26 Sep 78 N 13 ISRAEL
Peace, which is at the gate, a peace which has yet to be born but is in the process
of being formed; for the time being it is an only child, but it is being threatened
by enemy brothers. Even when it is born it is expected to have childhood illnesses
and an unknown lifespan. It might be capricious, and it might cause sleepless nights.
But it is a creature that might come to life in our world and change it.
We have been accustomed to being concerned for Israel's security. We must not shirk
this concern but perhaps, for the first time, Jewish and Arab parents, the ancient
Egyptian people and the weary Jewish people will taste a flavor we have not known
before--slogans of a prophetic vision will become men and women in a new reality.
It is possible that instead of barbed wire in the Middle East, a Middle East with
open borders will come into existence; in deserts which were fields of death the
wheat fields of our neighbors might grow. We might be able to construct a second
story of a regional economy on our national economy. A region with a network of
irrigation pipes to put an end to ancient deserts; [indistinct interjections] roads
which will reveal to everybody the antiquities from our people's heritage; a scenery
that gave birth to toil, courage and vision; seas that will provide a living for
fishermen and will serve holidaymakers; an economy that might obtain energy from the
sun's rays and from the bottom of the sea.
We call upon all peoples of the Middle East to achieve peace within the region and
between all countries; peace that will enable us to conduct the only just war--
against poverty, against sickness, against the wilderness, against ignorance, against
corruption and against discrimination. Peace provides new opportunities for the
Jewish people. This is a peace the achievement of which we owe to those who fell in
Israel's battles, the hope for its realization depending on renewed immigration to
Eretz Yisra'el.
The Alinement--the Labor Party and MAPAM--will take part in .this energetic campaign
for peace. Until it comes and when it comes we will also devote some of our efforts
to changing the image of Israel so that it not be a country that lives off external
support and is thus dependent on the charity of foreigners, but a country that lives
from its own toil.
Let us not be a people of the stock exchange but a people of work; a society that only
sits in deck chairs at the seaside, dotted with housesof entertainment and casinos,
but a society that cultivates its fields, activates its industries and provides for
itself; a country without masters and without servants, a country that does not live
from hand to mouth but from tomorrow to today, from the society-at-large to the in-
dividual. Zionism...
[Interjection by Likud MK Olmert] Mr Peres, on behalf of which party are you speak-
ing when you say this? _
[Peres] Zionism is not a movement to change one t s place of residence, but to change
the content of a people. The Labor Party--a movement to build a hard-working people
that knows'how to work and create, to teach and believe.,
[Knesset Speaker Shamir] Knesset members, I am asking for quiet.
[Peres] ...a people that knows who to defend itself and stretch the hand of peace
to its neighbors. We will build the Negev to look like the Jordan Valley and the .
Jezreel Valley--not a Negev of farmers and paid laborers. We will work to settle
the Galilee...