Defense Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday that he was encouraged by the report Sheikh Mohammed Ali el-Jaabari, the former Mayor of Hebron, brought back from his recent visit to Jordan where he had a series of meetings with King Hussein in Amman. The 80-year-old retired politician, long a supporter of Hussein told him that the “will for peace east of the Jordan River is equivalent to that west of the river,” Peres reported.
Peres did not say whether Jaabari brought back a message from Hussein. But the fact that he received a warm welcome in Jordan may indicate that Hussein agrees with Jaabari’s position that the PLO is not representative of the West Bank–this despite Hussein’s recently improved relations with the PLO.
Peres said that Jaabari and his political line deserved official Israeli encouragement. “Israel is aware of the fateful ties between the West Bank and Jordan” and “the line that Jaabari advocates contributes to Israel’s political aims because Israel does not intend to annex the West Bank,” Peres said.
The Defense Minister played down Hussein’s new cordiality with PLO chieftain Yassir Arafat. He said that while Hussein acknowledged the 1974 Arab summit conference at Rabat as recognition of the PLO he has not disengaged himself from the West Bank and he distinguished between the terror organizations and the land itself.” Jaabari is scheduled to meet this week with Premier Yitzhak Rabin, probably on Wednesday.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
