Dayan Israel Cannot Deny Plo’s Role in the Peacemaking Process

Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan said today that Israel could not deny the Palestine Liberation Organization’s political role in the Mideast conflict and its status in the peacemaking process. His statement, revolutionary in terms of established Israeli positions, immediately sparked a furor in political circles, with the hawks pouncing on him and most doveish circles rallying to his defense.

The Foreign Minister, who spoke in English at a session of the World Jewish Ex-Servicemen’s Congress now taking place in Jerusalem, said:

The PLO is not a state (but) we, cannot deny their position or their value in the conflict and eventually in order to reach on agreement. It isn’t Just the terrorists or the terror organization. It’s also the civilian part of it, that is to say the Palestinian refugees. No one, and certainly we do not think that a final settlement of the conflict in the Middle East can be achieved without a settlement of the refugees, (or) that they can go on living in refugee camps in Jordan, in Lebanon, even in Gaza….”

The section of his remarks beginning “It isn’t just…” was somewhat unclear in that the “it” could have referred to the Palestinian problem in general, rather than to the PLO.

CLEARLY REFERRED TO THE PLO

But there was no such unclarity about the Key sentence beginning “We cannot deny.” This clearly referred to the PLO, and it seemed to mark a significant departure from Israel’s long-time policy of refusing to even contemplate the PLO as a negotiating partner or a political factor in the peacemaking process.

The Dayan statement was reminiscent of what was known during the government of Premier Yitzhak Rabin as the “Yariv-Shemtov Formula.” This was enunciated at the end of 1974 by then Information Minister Aharon Yariv (Labor) and then Health Minister Victor Shemtov ( Mapam ). They urged Israel to negotiate with any Palestinian group that recognized the Jewish State and desisted from terrorism.

That approach was never accepted by a majority of the Rabin Cabinet. It was openly criticized by Rabin, Defense Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, the three senior ministers of the day Yariv resigned soon after.

The Begin government has been, if anything even more categorical in its blanket rejection of the PLO as a possible or putative or hypothetical negotiating partner. Begin himself, in fact, insists on referring to the organization as the “so-called PLO” and repeatedly compares it to the Nazis.

Even if some denial or “clarification” follows from. Dayan’s office, the impact of his statement will not have been lost upon Cairo, Washington and his various friends and foes in Jerusalem. Dayan is known as a man who does not usually commit “slips of the tongue” unwittingly, and his statement today is bound to be seen as an important exercise in kite-flying, especially in view of its timing — on the eve of the second Camp David meeting.

REACTIONS TO DAYAN’S REMARKS

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry sought frantically to “interpret” Dayan’s bombshell remarks. Ministry spokesman Naftali Lavie issued a statement asserting that Dayan had neither enunciated nor meant any change in Israel’s policy on the PLO “Nowhere in his remarks did the Minister say that the PLO could be considered by Israel as a negotiating partner, “Lavie said.

Nevertheless, pressure mounted today against Dayan in the Likud The usually moderate chairman of the Likud Knesset faction, Liberal Party member Avraham Sharir, called publicly for Dayan to resign– if what he had said indeed represented his thinking. Herut diehard MK Geula Cohen said Dayan “is not worthy to represent Israel.”

Even labor Party chairman Shimon Peres was highly critical of Dayan’s remarks. He noted that those remarks would make the “national consensus regarding the PLO most fragile, if not smashed outright.” Peres said Dayan’s statement would “sow confusion” in the Israeli public and deplored its timing, just before the new Camp David talks.

Peres said the Labor Party’s fears-had been aroused back in September when the Camp David agreements were signed. These agreements envisaged negotiations involving representatives of the West Bank and Gaza Strip “and other Palestinians,” Peres recalled This, he implied, had already been the wedge towards introducing the PLO to the political process.

However, labor Party dove Yossi Sarid congratulated Dayan and said his assessment was long overdue and faced up to realities. Dayan also won backing from his long-time supporter, Likud (La’am) hawk Zalman Shuval. Shuval said it was only realistic to recognize that the PLO had a major influence upon the Palestinians in the refugee camps. Former Transport Minister Meir Amit of the Democratic Movement for Change, said he felt Dayan was in effect signaling to the Americans– whose position on the PLO he had to some extent reflected– in advance of the Camp David parley.

On the West Bank, reports of Dayan’s remarks triggered a wave of gratification. Local leaders acknowledged that the Minister’s words were to an extent vague, but nevertheless welcomed them as possible harbingers of a major change in the Israeli attitude to the PLO.

BEGIN TRIES TO SOFTEN SITUATION

Premier Menachem Begin asserted tonight that Dayan had not enunciated or intended to enunciate any change in the Israeli policy on the PLO. Appearing with Dayan at the Likud Knesset faction for a political debate, Begin noted that Dayan “could have phrased his remarks differently.”

“But there is no change of policy — that is the opinion of all of us. (The PLO) are base murderers whose aim is to destroy us and who attack Jews because they are Jews. There will be no negotiating with them.” Begin added: “I am convinced that the Foreign Minister did not intend any change in this policy.”

Dayan himself explained that in the course of his morning lecture to the war veterans he had listed the PLO as one of the factors in the Arab world complicating the peace process. He said he had not recommended that Israel recognize the PLO nor that the PLO be considered a partner in the negotiations.

His explanations were received in silence by the faction, and the immediate assessment was that Begin’s intercession would take the heat out of a potentially explosive political situation. The de bate was due to continue late into the night.