— President Carter’s special Middle East Ambassador Sol Linowitz cautioned the Palestinian Arabs today that they have “no other course” except the Camp David process to give them full autonomy on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“There is nothing else that will give the Palestinians peacefully what we are achieving,” Linowitz told the Women’s Democratic Club in a farewell address as the chief U.S. negotiator for an Arab-Israeli peace. “To the Palestinians I say you are entitled to give us your support because you don’t have an alternative.”
He decried the attempts of “using the United Nations to intrude in the only process that has a prospect of success” in achieving peace and he urged sponsors of the actions in the UN that “they shouldn’t do it.”
Linowitz said that he will be leaving his post on Inauguration Day Jan. 20 but he pointed out that the Camp David process will continue with a session Wednesday in Israel and the pledge of President-elect Reagan of continuing the proceedings. He also said that he believes “if we continue to make progress towards full autonomy King Hussein (of Jordan) will not remain aloof.” He pointed out that it is “a misconception to consider the so-called Jordanian option as a substitute for Camp David” because the Camp David accords “always had an option for Jordan.”
CHIDES WEST EUROPEANS
Linowitz chided the West Europeans for their Declaration of Venice of last June that included association of the Palestine Liberation Organization with the peace process. He said that the “Europeans have dangled an alternative without saying how to get there.” He pointed out that “Israel is not going to sit at the table with the PLO” and that “Egypt has not endorsed the European initiative.”
Saying that Israeli Premier Menachem Begin is wrongly described as “intransigent” or “inflexible” Linowitz pointed out that it is Israel alone that is being asked to give up powers on the West Bank and Gaza. “Egypt isn’t being asked to give up powers” and the “effort is being made to extract that from Israel” which fears that it must be certain that developments will not lead to a Palestinian state.
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.
