Cabinet Ad Journs After 12 Hours of Debate on Peace Treaty Draft

The Cabinet adjourned this afternoon following two days of debate on the draft peace treaty now under negotiation between Israel and Egypt in Washington. No official communique was issued immediately after the meeting and it was not known what decisions, if any, were reached.

The Cabinet sat for a total of 12 hours yesterday and today. It was briefed at the regular weekly session yesterday by Defense Minister Ezer Weizman who dealt with the military elements of the draft treaty. Today’s special session was devoted largely to the political aspects explained by Acting Premier Yigael Yadin. The Cabinet was expected to approve the military sections of the treaty. (Late Story P.3.)

But a number of ministers reportedly expressed doubts about other clauses and some were concerned that Premier Menachem Begin, now in the U.S., may be making certain decisions on his own without adhering closely to the Cabinet’s guidelines.

ISSUES CAUSING UNEASE

The issue that seems to be causing the greatest unease is the linkage between the peace treaty and the negotiations on the future of the West Bank and Gaza Strip which are covered by the larger of the two Camp David frameworks. Another matter that the ministers want clarified is whether the treaty will compel Egypt to renounce some 50-odd agreements of an anti-Israel nature that it has entered into in the past few years.

Finally there is the issue of compensation to Israel for returning the Sinai oil fields, the question of American economic aid for Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai and the possibility that the two new air bases in the Negev will not be completed before Israel abandons its air bases in Sinai.

Some ministers were piqued by Begin’s announcement in New York last week that Israel would seek a 25-year low-interest loan from the U.S. instead of an outright grant to finance its withdrawal from Sinai. The Cabinet has never given its formal approval to such a decision and this has aroused fear that Begin and the Israeli negotiating team in Washington may be acting independently of the rest of the government.

Meanwhile, members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee were angered when Weizman cancelled earlier plans to brief them on the treaty situation. Several coalition MKs sent a letter of protest to Knesset Speaker Yitzhak Shamir and urged him to see to it that Weizman appears before the committee.

Weizman himself was reported angered by what he called the “low spirits” of some of his Cabinet colleagues, meaning apparently a lack of enthusiasm for parts of the treaty draft. According to Maariv today, he told one minister, “If the agreement is so bad let us end it now and save an hour,” and, he added sarcastically, “we may save the people of Israel.”