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Begin defends policies
at 30th Zionist Congress
by Gif Sedan
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Prime
Minister Menachem Begin,
addressing the closing session of
the 30th World Zionist Congress
here last Thursday, gave, in effect, a
defense of his government’s
settlement policies which were
sharply criticized by Labor Party
leader Shimon Peres in his address
to the Congress the day before.
The Congress plenum, in fact,
approved a Labor Alignment
resolution critical of the
government’s settlement policies
but the Presidium refused to
accept it. This was believed to be
the first time a Zionist Congress
has disapproved of a policy of an
Israeli government.
Begin spoke in a moderate, non-
polemical vein. It was his first
public appearance outside the
Knesset since the death of his wife,
Aliza, on Nov. 14.
Begin offered rebuttal to charges
by Peres that the government’s
settlement policies were leading
Israel toward a “military future”
and that continued rule over more
than a million Arabs could make
Jews eventually a minority in their
own country.
According to Begin, peace
cannot be achieved by giving up
parts of “Eretz Yisrael.” If any
foreign power were to control the
hills west of the Jordan Valley, life
in Israel would become “hell,” he
said. “Our right to Eretz Yisrael is
totally linked to national security,”
he declared.
Begin maintained that
demographic forecasts have
proven wrong. The number of
Arabs in what he termed the land
of Israel decreased in the past 15
years, whereas the Jewish
population grew by one percent
annually, he said. “True, the Arab
minority in Eretz Yisrael is big. But
the Jewish majority is also very
big nearly two thirds,” Begin
observed. According to the 1981
census, 5,213,000 people live in
Israel proper and the occupied
territories, of whom 3,320,000, or
about 64 percent, are Jews.
The Labor Alignment
resolution opposed continued
settlement activity in the heavily
Arab-populated areas of the West
Bank. The Presidium promptly
rejected the vote and an ad hoc
committee was formed to find a
way out of the controversy. It is
seeking a formulation acceptable
to both Labor and Likud.
Begin insisted that Israel has the
right to settle “all of Eretz Yisrael”
and said it would continue to
control security on the West Bank
and Gaza Strip under the
autonomy plan he proposes. He
acknowledged that there are
problems in relations with Egypt
but stressed that the three-year-old
peace treaty is holding. Israel is
now seeking peace with all of its
Arab neighbors, he said.
He expressed hope that an
agreement will be reached soon
with Lebanon. Israel does not
want an inch of Lebanese territory.
It supports Lebanon’s sovereignty
Begin
and territorial integrity, he said. It
wants to ike all foreign forces out
of Lebanon. Israel will agree to
leave simultaneously with the
Syrians if the Palestine Liberation
Organization leaves first. Begin
said.
Begin made no reference to
Israel's relations with the United
States. In the name of the Zionist
Congress he called on the Soviet
Union to “free the Prisoners of
Zion." He pledged that Israel
would do everything possible to
aid Jews in the USSR, Syria,
Ethiopia and elsewhere. “No one
can doubt we are facing crises
today, but we have done so in the
past and I am confident we shall
overcome,” Begin said.
The Congress, which opened on
raps U.N.
by Yitzhak Rabi
UNITED NATIONS (JTA)—
Yehuda Blum, Israel’s ambassador
to the United Nations, Monday
termed a resolution passed by the
General Assembly as an “anti
peace” resolution which was
meant “to impede the peaceful
solution of the Arab-Israeli
conflict.”
Blum made his statement before
the Assembly overwhelmingly
adopted by a vote of 113-17, with
15 abstentions, a resolution calling
on all states to hair any military,
economic and financial aid to
Israel, as well as “human resources
aimed at encouraging it (Israel) to
pursue policies against the Arab
countries and the Palestinian
people.” Observers here suggested
that the term “human resources”
applied to new immigrants to
Israel.
The resolution also stated its
rejection of “all partial agreements
and separate treaties insofar as
they violate the recognized rights
of the Palestinian people." In
addition, the resolution
condemned the strategic
agreement between Israel and the
United States, charging that it
encourages Israel in its
“aggressive" and “expansionist"
policy.
The resolution said that peace in
the Mideast should be based on a
comprehensive solution which
Dec. 7, was a stormy one, marked
by fierce partisanship and
numerous outbursts of heckling
and other disorders. But Leon
Dulzin, chairman of the World
Zionist Organization Executive,
expressed satisfaction with the
proceedings despite the overheated
atmosphere.
Interviewed on Voice of Israel
Radio after the closing session, he
said what he saw in the Binyanei
Ha-ooma convention hall was an
outpouring of love for Israel. That
was certainly satisfying, he said.
Dulzin attributed the heckling
and disturbances during the
Congress sessions to a marginal
group of 20-30 individuals. Most
of the delegates behaved
respectfully, he said. He agreed
that Jews of Middle Eastern origin
deserved greater representation in
the Zionist movement, hut nothing
could be done about it because the
movement was in the hands of
political parties.
He said that despite the gloomy
picture of aliya, it must be
remembered that a quarter of a
million Jews from the West have
settled in Israel since the state was
founded. “It is contrary to human
nature that people come from
more advanced countries, and that
is the Zionist strength,” he said,
adding, “I have no doubt that
immigration will continue.”
resolution
includes the establishment of an
independent Palestinian state
under the leadership of the
Palestine Liberation Organization.
The United States, which voted
against the resolution along with
Israel and most of the European
countries, said that the resolution
lacked balance and would not
contribute to peace, and that the
U.S. remained committed to a
solution within the framework of
Resolution 242 of 1967.
Blum also referred to
Resolution 242 “as the only agreed
basis for a negotiated settlement of
the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was
and remains one of the few positive
contributions which this
organization (the U.N.) has made
to the cause of peace in the Middle
East.” He said that the .resolution
adopted Mqnday contradicted
Resolution 242.
Earlitfr Monday, the Assembly
adopted another resolution on the
Palestinian issue, demanding
complete and unconditional
withdrawal of Israeli forces from
all Arab territories occupied since
1967. The vote on this resolution
was 123 in favor, with Israel and
the United States voting against,
and 19 countries abstaining. The
adoption of the resolutions
officially concluded the General
Assembly’s debateson the Mideast
situation and the' Palestinian
question for this year.
Ambassador Blum
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PAGE 3 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 24, 1982