Israel will take no new peace plan to Camp David, Premier Menachem Begin said today, following a meeting with members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in his office. Begin said the present Israeli plan was “good” and this is the plan that would be brought to Camp David. However, Begin added, a team of experts is preparing possible Israeli replies to the various questions and proposals likely to come up during the summit conference which begins Sept. 5.
Begin said that the Cabinet’s decision yesterday to freeze the construction of the five nahal (para-military) settlements along the Jordan River was taken because of the upcoming Camp David talks. “When we heard there was to be a tripartite meeting, it never occurred to us to go on with establishing these nahal settlements,” he said. “This was because of psychological reasons, not for any other reasons.” Political sources in Jerusalem described the decision as a gesture of good will to President Carter for initiating the Camp David summit.
Even the opposition parties agreed that the five settlements were military settlements which should be established under any circumstances. Begin thus indicated that the establishment of the five settlements was only a question of time. Government sources indicated that the settlements would fit in with the basic concept advanced several years ago by Yigal Allon, Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier in the Rabin government, of creating a chain of settlements along the Jordan River.
INFORMED VANCE OF GOVERNMENT’S DECISION
Begin rejected as “groundless” a claim that the settlement question was raised in order to jeopardize the prospects for a successful summit. He said he had informed U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance of the exact circumstances which led to the government’s decision. “We told Vance: all three parties want the summit to succeed, but no one does so more than Israel,” Begin said.
Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres said at the Committee meeting with Begin that Israel should seek to achieve a declaration of principles at the summit. Such a declaration includes the best possibility for peace, Peres said. Amnon Rubinstein, chairman of the Democratic Movement for Change Knesset faction said Israel should re-examine its position. Although the Israeli peace plan was a possible basis for negotiations, it was not an exclusive plan and one should respond to new initiatives, he urged.
(Meanwhile, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said yesterday in Alexandria that “I will do my best to achieve peace based on justice and not any other peace” when he meets Begin and President Carter at Camp David. Sadat stressed that “I am not for a unilateral solution or seeking one (with Israel), as Moscow Radio claims.”)
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