The Begin Plan for Administrative Self-Rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

The following plan, which Prime Minister Menahem Begin presented to US President Carter and President Sadat of Egypt as part of Israel's overall Middle East peace plan, was read out to the Israeli Knesset on December 28, 1977. The Journal reprints it here as it appeared in the Jerusalem Post the following day. In his statement to the Knesset Prime Minister Begin stressed that Paragraph 11 of the plan "obviously includes the stationing of Israel army forces in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip." Without the presence of Israeli armed forces, these areas would be dominated by the PLO, he said, and this will not under any circumstances be permitted. "Without this paragraph," he pointed out, "the plan for administrative self-rule is meaningless.