Cabinet Supports Begin; Terms Peace Plan ‘fair Basis’ for Negotiations

The Cabinet today unanimously approved reports by Premier Menachem Begin and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan on their Washington visit and on their “presentation of the Israeli position in the talks with President Carter.” A communique issued after a four-hour political debate indicated no specific new concessions by Israel. But the communique pointedly referred to the Israeli peace plan as a “fair basis” for negotiation, deliberately using the wording which Carter himself has consistently used.

Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor said he would “not pretend” that there had been a change of situation since last week, when Begin had publicly declared that certain demands made by the U.S. were unacceptable by Israel.

But he pointed out that the Cabinet communique was phrased “without any negatives” and added that Israel wanted Egypt to come forward with counterproposals. Israel did not see its peace plan as a diktat, Naor said, but as a basis on which to proceed with substantive negotiations. The time “has not come yet for changes” in the Israeli plan, he said. Such time would only come if and when substantive negotiations were entered upon.

NUMBER OF INITIATIVES UNDERWAY

Naor said the Cabinet would be taking a “number of initiatives” designed to “advance the resumption of negotiations with Egypt.” One of these will be Begin’s reply to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s last letter to him, received just before he left for Washington. That will be sent in a day or two. There would be other initiatives, too, Naor pledged, “but publication would ruin them.”

Naor admitted that the Israeli Cabinet could be said to have responded to Carter’s appeal for “reconsideration” mainly in the literal sense of having reconsidered in detail all the aspects of the Israeli peace plan and the political situation. It had not responded to the extent of actually introducing changes. He insisted that unanimity had prevailed at the Cabinet debate, with Democratic Movement for Change ministers joining others in endorsing the Premier’s actions and reiterating their support of the Israeli peace plan.

RAPS U.S. MEDDLING

Speaking for the Cabinet, Naor blasted reported efforts by U.S. officials to “meddle” in Israeli politics by airing the wish for a change of Premier. “Ministers expressed their disdain at this,” Naor said. Ministers, and particularly Finance Minister Simcha Ehrlich, had also hit at Labor’s Abba Eban for speaking on a New York TV station interview of the government’s “disintegration.” Ehrlich said this “crossed the line of loyalty to the State.”

The Secretary said Defense Minister Ezer Weizman’s call for a unity government and his criticism of the Cabinet for not acting energetically enough to revive the talks with Egypt had not come up at today’s session. But apparently they were the subject of an earlier tete-a-tete between Begin and Weizman in the Premier’s office. No details of this were available.

Naor said the Cabinet was aware of the very sharp and widespread criticism around the world of Israel’s action in Lebanon. He faulted the army spokesman’s office for failing to properly explain the action and the methods used by the Israel Defense Force.

EGYPT PREPARED FOR FURTHER PEACE EFFORTS

(Meanwhile, the Egyptian National Security Council, the country’s top policy-making body, declared yesterday that it was prepared to go ahead with Middle East peace efforts despite the recent events in Lebanon, although it indicated it did not expect any progress until Israel changed its policy. The meeting was called in Cairo by Sadat.

(Foreign Minister Mohammed Kaamel, in a statement after the meeting, said “Egypt will continue its peace efforts toward a just and comprehensive settlement in the Middle East based on Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories and recognition of the need and necessity for mutual security for all countries in this region.”

(Sadat, meanwhile, told a visiting delegation from American universities today that the U.S. should deal with the Mideast as “a full partner and not as a negotiator or mediator.” He said that if the Palestinian question was solved “in all its dimensions, 90 percent of the other problems will be solved and we can achieve peace in no time.”)