The ballroom of the Hilton Hotel was packed to capacity. Three thousand delegates and guests attended the banquet of the United Jewish Appeal’s annual conference at which Moshe Dayan, Israel’s Minister of Defense was the main speaker of the evening.
Let me quote a few lines from the poetry of Bialik,” he said.
What is granite, what is rock compared with a Jewish boy studying Torah?
“Bialik was writing of the Yeshiva Bachur,” Dayan continued, thunderous applause greeting his words. I looked around. Some of those who cheered so wildly, had probably never taken such pride in the Yeshiva Bachur, but the words coming from the mouth of Dayan, sounded like music to their ears.
“The Yeshiva Bachur has contributed immeasurably to the survival of our people. He has kept alive the dream of our return to Zion,” Dayan declared.
“We have realized the dream. The land is now ours!”
“Hebron! There Abraham and Sarah were buried. There King David was crowned. Hebron is my homeland! I cannot separate my homeland from history.”
“I cannot conceive of any Jewish government agreeing to keep Jews out of Hebron. Hebron is now populated by Arabs. We do not want to expel them. What we want is that Jews should be able to settle there and live side by side with the Arabs.”
This was one of the highlights of Dayan’s address.
He opened his speech with a few remarks on his meeting with President Nixon.
“Naturally you would like to know what transpired in Washington. Let me say: I am glad that I went to Washington and I will be happy to go home.”
He expanded only a little on these enigmatic words, so typical of Dayan, the master craftsman of diplomatic lingo.
“I didn’t ask for anything and wasn’t promised anything. However, the President has kept every word that he has promised us since he has taken office.”
Dayan spoke of the need of Israel to be militarily strong
“In 1967 the Arabs were readying themselves to attack us. You know why? Because they thought that we were weak. No It’s not good for Jews to be weak. Its not good for the Jewish State to be weak,
Israel has only herself to rely upon. We cannot rely on the United Nations, we cannot even rely on the United States. In 1967 when Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran to our ships, the Johnson Administration knew that this action meant war. The administrations was sincerely interested in opening the waterway. It strove sincerely to prevent war- but it was helpless to do anything about it.”
He dwelt at length on Israel’s conditions for a return to the Jarring talks.
Israel wants to negotiate on equal terms. As long as one party receives from Russia all the arms it desires, while the other is running out of ammunition, negotiations between then cannot be on equal terms. Thee moment the negotiations break down, the one who is armed, is in a position to put the pistol at the head of the other.
Negotiations cannot be on equal terms as long as Egypt threatens that if she does not get what she wants by way of negotiations, she will turn to the Security Council, which in its present composition will accept any anti-Israel resolutions.
We want to negotiate– for we want peace. We have our own views on the future borders of our States. These differ from those of the Arabs. Therefore we have to sit down and negotiate. We can negotiate within the framework of the United Nations Resolution of November 1967– but remember, the U.N. resolution is not our Bible.”
Dayan spoke with confidence of Israel’s military strength.
“I don’t complain. I am not discouraged. Let me put it this way: I wouldn’t like to be on the other side.” He stopped for a moment, then added to the delight of all: Without my soldiers, that is.”
Towards the end of his address, Dayan called upon world Jewry to raise their voice on behalf of Israel. During the last year a new voice was added to that of world Jewry speaking up for Israel — the voice of Russian Jewry. “It is an imporant and meaningful voice,” Dayan declared.
The Jewish Press, Friday, December 18, 1979.