Dayan Hints First Settlement with Arabs May Be with Jordan

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan has hinted to a small number of Labor Party leaders that he thinks there is now a possibility of reaching a separate peace settlement with Jordan. Yediot Achronot, an afternoon daily, quoted reliable sources within the Labor Party as saying that Gen. Dayan had reached that conclusion after evaluating the situation in Jordan following developments after the Soviet withdrawal from Egypt. Gen. Dayan, however, did not say whether or not he preferred such a separate agreement as the first with the Arab states, the sources said.

The agreement, according to Gen. Dayan, could be based on Jordanian King Hussein’s acceptance of Israeli security measures on the border, minor border changes in the Latrun area, demilitarization of the West Bank and a condition of status quo in Jerusalem until further negotiations between Israel and Jordan could take place. The sources claimed that Dayan sees Hussein as more ready to compromise on Jerusalem than he was previously. The status of Jerusalem has been one factor blocking any move on the way to a peace settlement.

Dayan however, reportedly said that Hussein would not agree to the Allon plan, and would demand the return of the West Bank to Jordanian jurisdiction. The Allon plan calls for a string of paramilitary settlements along the Jordan River, with a return of a demilitarized West Bank to Jordan.

The Canadian Jewish Congress sent a cable Tuesday to Bolivian President Hugo Banzer Suarez requesting the extradition to France of Klaus Altman, alias Klaus Barbie, a former Gestapo chief in Southern France known as the “Butcher of Lyons.”