More coalition tension — this time over foreign policy — is being predicted in political circles here following the successful conclusion of three days of talks between Israel and Egypt on Taba. The talks, in Herzliya, wound up this afternoon with both sides reporting progress.
Details were not immediately available. But there was talk of “tying loose ends” and it seemed clear that the issue would now come up before the Inner Cabinet next week — where the coalition tensions over the Taba issue could easily explode.
Plainly, the negotiators — senior civil servants from the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry — have reached the outlines of an accord with Egypt on a procedure, while not entailing an immediate submission of Taba to arbitration, nevertheless involves preparations for arbitration while simultaneously seeking a compromise solution.
The Likud under Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir has always demanded that conciliation be tried first — before the sides submit the issue to binding international arbitration.
Premier Shimon Peres and his Labor Party have been prepared to accept Egypt’s position that arbitration be invoked without any effort at conciliation.
The tension on Taba, if it indeed erupts, will have been heightened by the ongoing and worsening feud between the two main coalition parties over the West Bank land fraud allegations, and also by the effect of the religious parties, threats of non-confidence motions. (See December 12 Bulletin.)
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