The World: A PALESTINE STATE: 'INCONCEIVABLE '

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Menachem Begin was courtly and hospitable last week when TIME Jerusalem Bureau Chief Donald Neffand Correspondent David Halevy interviewed him at his Tel Aviv apartment. "This is where I hid out from the British in the late '40s," he grinned. "If they had ever caught me here, they would have shot me down without asking questions. "Said Begin:

ON A PALESTINIAN STATE. It is inconceivable to us to allow a Palestinian state. Let me tell you that's not only the opinion of the Likud. On this we have a national consensus. The previous government was also of the same opinion. Under no circumstances can we agree to a so-called Palestinian state. It would be a mortal danger to us. There is a consensus of, I suppose, 95% of the people, and by their political representatives, not to allow such a development to take place.

ON BEING CALLED A TERRORIST. I don't give a damn what I'm called. I'm used to it. Let me explain. In the '40s, the Germans were killing our brethren. No Jews were allowed to come into this country. We begged the British, "Open the gates; let them come in." What did we do? We started to fight, to open the gates and allow our people to be saved from destruction. We started to fight to save our people. Now take [Palestine Liberation Organization Leader Yasser] Arafat. What is his aim? He said in the so-called Palestinian charter that it was the destruction of the Jewish state. Israel must disappear. He wants to destroy a nation. Our aim is to save a people. When I am called a terrorist and Arafat is called a guerrilla, I think it is the apex of injustice.

ON LIKUD AND LABOR. The difference between the parties is not on a Palestinian state, not on Jerusalem never to be divided again, not on no return to the lines of 1967. The difference is that the Labor Party says we should be ready to give back part of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. Likud is not ready to do so. To whom are we going to give it back? [In 1948] King Abdullah invaded this country from Jordan, he killed our people, destroyed our synagogues and he occupied part of it. Then in the early '50s he annexed it. Nobody recognized that annexation but Britain and Pakistan. The U.S. never recognized it. So give what back? It doesn't belong to them.

ON A WEST BANK SOLUTION. We are ready to give the people of Samaria and Judea free option of citizenship. If they want Israeli citizenship, they will get it. If they prefer to keep their previous citizenship, they may. We are not going to force ours on them. They can have complete cultural autonomy and social and economic advancement, living in their homes. This is their homeland—living together with us. What is wrong with a Jewish majority living together with an Arab minority in peace, in human dignity, in equality of rights? I believe that we can live together. It is not an occupied country as people understand that horrible term. We let them live in their homeland.

ON ANNEXING THE WEST BANK. I object to the word annex. You annex foreign land by international law. You don't annex your own country. You wouldn't annex Tel Aviv, would you? The same applies to Bethlehem.