The Reluctant Israelis

In Israel last week, one effect of the Rogers proposals was to exacerbate a slowly swelling division between hawks and doves. Israel has no hardhats; the confrontation so far has been largely theoretical and intellectual. To illuminate this conflict, TIME interviewed a representative hawk and dove, Israeli-style:

YORAM ARIDOR is a young Tel Aviv lawyer and Knesset member of the Gahal Party who believes that "to accept the Rogers plan is to accept the principle of withdrawal, and to us that means waiving our rights to the Israeli motherland. Judea and Samaria [Jordan's West Bank now occupied by Israel] belong to us. In Sinai we do not have the historical reasons for staying but security requires that we do not withdraw from Sinai. Three times in 20 years we have had to fight there."

Aridor is ready to offer West Bank Arabs "all the rights of Jewish citizens of Israel." He adds: "We want to sign a peace treaty with Jordan as it is today. I believe the Israeli motherland extends to the East Bank, but we will not go to war to get it. If we cannot get a peace treaty, then it is better to fight on the Jordan River where we are now than back on our old borders a few miles from Tel Aviv.

"To withdraw now would mean another war soon. In 1938, it was the friends of the Czechs who asked them to give up the Sudetenland in the name of peace. A year later there was war. We think the analogy can be made. We believe that our withdrawal in 1957 was the basis for the 1967 war. A Palestine state? We cannot allow creation of a Palestine state next to us whose aim is, as Yasser Arafat says, the destruction of Israel."

YEHOSHUA ARIELI, history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is Aridor's mirror image. Arieli is one of the founders of the "Movement for Peace and Security," which was started by teachers, students and center and left-wing Israeli politicians in 1967 to influence opinion on the question of occupied territories. Arieli would prefer to call the hawks "annexationists" and the doves "negotiators." The annexationists, he feels, are "fanatics at worst and Zionist chauvinists at best." Some negotiator proposals for solving the Middle East crisis:

>> Borders--"The more convincing the peace settlement, the fewer territorial guarantees we need. If we can get an agreement that makes us believe the Arabs are ready to recognize us and stop hostilities, only small changes in the 1967 borders will be needed."

>> Golan Heights--"We should not claim it permanently, but the Syrian border should be adjusted to give us the headwaters of the Jordan, which are our main water supply. The Heights should be demilitarized."

>> Gaza--"Strategically it is part of Israel, but politically it is not. It should not be returned to Egypt, but linked to whatever state controls the West Bank after the settlement."

>> Jerusalem--"This is the most vexing question. We oppose internationalization; there is no successful precedent for it. Jerusalem must remain one city, not be divided again. Large autonomy could be given to the three main religious communities. It should become an open city, shared by Israel and the state in power on the West Bank. Jerusalem Arabs could have dual citizenship if they wanted. United municipal administration or two cooperating boroughs could run the city. Arab Jerusalem would have to be demilitarized. After all, it was Jordan that started the shooting into Israeli Jerusalem in 1967."

>> Palestine--"The political plans of the Palestine Arabs are their affair. If they want a West Bank state, that's their choice. They would be required to recognize Israel and demilitarize the West Bank. Any infiltration of armed groups into Israel would give Israel the right of police action. Israel should state openly that Palestine belongs to two peoples --the Israelis and the Palestinians--and should be divided among them."

>> Refugees--"We cannot recognize refugees as having rights to return to Israel. But we should declare our willingness to pay compensation for loss of property. Some refugees should be allowed into Israel to reunite families."

>> Israel's hawks--"The Gahal would make a permanent occupation and call it peace. That is the way to suicide."

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