Cloud of Concern over Efforts to Resume Long-stalled Autonomy Talks

Premier Menachem Begin’s firm insistence on Jerusalem as a venue for the soon-to-be-resumed autonomy talks has cast a cloud of concern over efforts to get the long-stalled talks resumed.

The U.S. special envoy to the autonomy negotiations, Richard Fairbanks, will be in Israel and Egypt early next week to try and break through the venue impasse and arrange an initial, ministerial meeting in Washington.

Begin repeated forcefully last night, at a dinner for a visiting American Jewish Congress delegation, that he would not countenance a “boycott” of Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. If there were to be no talks at Jerusalem since Egypt refuses to hold the autonomy talks there, then Israel’s team would not go to Cairo or Washington, Begin vowed. The responsibility for the breakdown would rest with Egypt, he declared.

BASIS FOR BEGIN’S LINE

Israeli sources say the Premier has taken this tough line because of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s refusal to visit Jerusalem earlier this year. His planned official visit to Israel has been postponed indefinitely because of this problem.

In the past, Israel agreed to the autonomy talks being held in Tel Aviv or Herzliya, but now, in the face of Mubarak’s behavior, Begin has ruled that this must stop. The Premier did not, it was learned, consult the Cabinet on this decision, and some ministers, including the chief autonomy negotiator, Yosef Burg, are said to be uncumfortable with it.

The Egyptian position is that Jerusalem is itself an issue in the autonomy talks and therefore cannot be a venue for them. Israel has always maintained that Jerusalem was specifically amitted from the Camp David accords and is not an issue in the autonomy talks–since the autonomy is not to apply to Arab Jerusalemites.