10—THE BULLETIN—Thursdoy, M^U, T975
PERES CALLS FOR ISRAELI FEDERATION
DEFENCE MINISTER SHIMON PERES, right, in conversation at Ben*Gurion airport with Cliief of Staff Motta Gar.
USSR JEW JAILED
LONDON — Sender Levin-son, 27, a metal worker from Bfendery in Soviet Moldavia,
-feas—hem—sentenced__by a
court there to six years in a labor camp on charges of "systematic speculation." He >yas dismissed trom his job after applying for an exit-permit for Israel three years ago and has been harassed repeatedly since. JCNS
DANtSH TtAM TO THAIN IN ISRAEL
COPENHAGEN — The Danish Football Union has voted to send the national team to winter training camp in Israel in February 1976.
The Union chose Israel against Florence, Italy.
During the camp, the Danish team will play twice against the Israeli team.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Shimon Peres, the Israel Defence Minister, has spelt out some of his ideas for a plan for an overall peace settlement with the Arabs in a special interview with Hagai Eshed, diplomatic correspondent of Davar, the His-tadrut (Labor Federation) daily.
Peres advocates the adoption and active promotion of the concept of an "Israel Federation" comprising Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in which the inhabitants of the latter two areas would be accorded the maximum autonomy.
The Federation could operate on three levels of Government: national, regional and municipal.
On the national level, only citizens would have active and passive voting rights in such fields as security, foreign policy and finance, although all residents would have the right to opt for citizenship.
On the regional level, such matters as education, health, tourism, transport, trade and agriculture would be dealt with. On the municipal level, all residents, not only citizens, would have full voting rights.
Peres suggested that the West Bank should be divided into two regions and that the Gaza Strip should form a third. Israel should similarly be divided into three regions.
Each region would have a Parliament open to citizens and res-
idents. In the West Bank and Gaza this arrangement wouM suit those Arabs who might wish to retain their foreign passports and still have a say in determining the life style of their region.
Peres said that the state of peace which would exist within the Federation he was proposing would probably ensure that the Jews would continue to constitute a majority, because it would attract increased Jewish immigration from the diaspora.
"I sincerely believe that such a plan constitutes an honorable solution for the Arabs themselves in a situation of real peace in the area. It provides them with a framework in which they can prosper unhampered, retain their land, and maintain their links with Arab culture, Islam and contemporary political and economic developments in the Arab world," Peres said.
The plan had the added advantage of providing the answer to the question of a Palestinian identity, since the Arab areas within the Federation could call themselves Palestinian if they chose.
This, Peres added, provided for the first time a constructive Israel proposal for resolving the Palestinian question. Israel had hitherto declined to make any proposal in the matter, although recognizing that the problem existed.
The Defence Minister said he felt that his proposed Federation could also at a later date include Jordan along the lines of the Common Market, although this was something of a "vision" in existing circumstances
Israel should bei^ promoting the Federation idea now, Peres urged. Even if current moves towards interim agreements were successful, the question of an overall settlement would not drop out of sight, and the West Bank was the key area.
If the Israeli Government itself were to debate, the Federation proposal at this stage, it would be seen as an Israeli ultimatum, so it would be better for it to be discussed by the public and the political parties, especially labor forums.
Israel should also promote the idea internationally in order to gain general support for the proposal. JCNS.
OSLO PLEDGES SUPPORT
JERUSALEM — Norway will strongly oppose all attempts to have Israel excluded from any United Nations Organization. This pledge was given to the Israeli Government by Norwegian Foreign Minister, Knut Frydenlund during his recent visit to Israel. JCNS
Herzog blames 73 war mishaps on Meir, Dayan, Sapir 'baronies'
SEE THIRD WORLD THREAT TO ISRAEL
LONDON — Major - General Chaim Herzog, .whose widely praised book on the Yom Kippur War. "The War of Atonement," was recently published in London by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, has strongly attacked "medieval baronies" within Israeli society for the early major mishaps in the war.
General Herzog will succeed Yosef Tekoah as Israel's chief representative at the United Nations.
The real problem before the Yom Kippur War, said General Herzog, was that Israel "was divided into three medieval baronies. Golda Meir ran foreign affairs and particularly American ^relations. Dayan was in charge of defence, and Pinhas Sapir of the party economy.
"They each tended their own barony without crossing the borders of the other. As, under the Israeli electorial system, members of Parliamant are not beholden to the voter but to the party bosses. There was -with rare exceptions - no criticism of the leadership. The Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset heard for the first time of the Arab concentration on Israel's borders six hours after the Yom Kippur War had broken out.
"The barons knew best. A small group of pec^le ran the country without any sanction of the electorate or Parliament.
"It is for this reason that I and others are trying to change the electoral system and a Bill is being pushed through the Knesset, where it is meeting the opposition of vested interests.
"Fifty percent of the present members would never get back to Parliament if they had to face the electorate."
General Herzog added that the taxation system, which was now being changed, also created a moral climate in which everybody was trying to bypass the law.
Moreover, the social system of trade unions, which was inflexible and would riot move with the times, added to the malaise.
Mistakes which in a Western society would have led to the immediate dismissal of the Minister concerned could be made with impunity in Israel. The Minister
HERZOG
could go soundly to sleep well aware that he could not be removed from office.
It was this lack of sanctions that led to the protest movement by members of the public.
"We had a situation where the same Minister stayed in office for 25 years. The leader of the opposition has led his party to defeat eight times and he is still the leader because there can be no change under the present party system."
Referring to the criticism in his book (which may well become a classic of its kind) General Herzog said that a great deal had already been put right by the Army.
Many' experienced senior officers had been recalled. The Israeli Army was now better than before the fighting, but there was still room for changes.
General Herzog is particularly anxious that slack discipline, about which he warned repeatedly but unavailingly before the war, should be eradicated.
However, he praised the Rabin Government for being "wide-eyed" and sensible in not allowing itself
to be "railroaded" into an agreement with the Arabs which might harm Israel's security. JCNS.
PARIS—"The future of Israel— and, indeed, of the Jewish people as a whole—is endangered not only by the Arabs but by the Third World, which is increasing its opposition to the Jewish State, Professor Rayitiond Aron declared here.
Aron, a member of the institute Francais and an editorial writer for Le Figaro, was addressing the French section of the World Jewish Congress at its annual meeting. The meeting, which also marked the 30th anniversary of the French section's foundation, was attended by 2,500 people.
Israel had certainly been right to insist on a formal peace agreement with her Arab neighbors, Aron said, but in order to achieve one, she would have to spell out her minimum demands.
I am convinced that Israel's leaders are right to have asserted their independence 'vis-a-vis'the United States, but the mistake they have made, in my view, is to delay for so long a final decision on the political options open to them. They have lost
DRUZE VILLAGE PLANNED
JERUSALEM — A model farm village is planned for the Negev, to be settled by 300 Druze families. The latest farming methods would be used.
many opportunities since the Six-Day War in 1967," Aron continued.
As a founder member of the international Committee of Intellectuals for the Universality of UNESCO, he had recently visited America and many European countries, "where Israel still had many friends and where public opinion was mosUy on the side of the Jewish State.
"That is why I say that now is the time for Israel's leaders to redress the political situation in their favor by making known their demand^ for a peace settlement in the Middle F^st," Aron declared. JCNS
Yadin lauds Gen. Shoron
LONDON—Addressii^ a press conference here. Professor Yig-ael Yadin expressed greatadmir-ation for General Arik Sharon.
The push across the Suez Canal by Sharon during the Yom Kippur War was "the most daring and the greatest of all Israel victories. I think Sharon is one of the most daring officers in the world and one of the most brilliant leaders that I know."
Professor Yadin, who was Israel's second Chief of Staff, said diere was no room for a third state between the Mediterranean and the sea.
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