Fateful Triangle

Rejectionism and Accomodation141statement to a group of U.S. Senators “that he was prepared to sign apeace treaty with Israel if it withdrew from all Arab territories capturedin the 1967 war, and if a Palestinian state was created on the WestBank and in the Gaza Strip.” The Labor Party journal Davar quotedPrime Minister Rabin’s response to this disturbing “peace offensive”:But there is nothing new in all of this, in the objectives thatthe Arabs wish to obtain, stressed the Prime Minister whenrecalling that back in 1971 Sadat told Dr. Jarring of hiswillingness to reach a peace settlement as he understood it.On the contrary, he has even made the conditions harder,since then, as opposed to now, he did not link an Israeli-Egyptian agreement with agreements with other Arabcountries and did not raise, in such a pronounced manner[in fact, at all], his demand for a Palestinian state in theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip. 76Thus no Israeli reaction was in order.The following year, Egypt, Syria and Jordan “informed the UnitedStates that they would sign peace treaties with Israel as part of anoverall Middle East settlement.” 77 The Palestinian National Council, thegoverning body of the PLO, issued a declaration on March 20, 1977calling for the establishment of “an independent national state” inPalestine—rather than a secular democratic state of Palestine—andauthorizing Palestinian attendance at an Arab-Israeli peace conference.Prime Minister Rabin of Israel responded “that the only place the Israeliscould meet the Palestinian guerrillas was on the field of battle.” 78 Thesame session of the National Council elected a new PLO ExecutiveCommittee excluding representatives of the Rejection Front. 79Shortly after, the PLO leaked a “peace plan” in Beirut which statedClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky