Hussein-arafat Talks Termed an Exercise in Futility

Israeli officials today characterized the five days of talks between King Hussein of Jordan and Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat as an exercise in futility, punctuated by “the empty phrases” of the joint communique they issued in Amman at the end of last week.

The officials said the communique holding out the prospects of further talks in the months ahead was “a smokescreen” to cover the failure of Hussein and Arafat to reach agreement on any basic issues and predicted “months and months” of futher dialogue between the two would not guarantee success.

Nevertheless, Premier Yitzhak Shamir was reportedly involved in high level consultations on reaction to the Amman talks. Government sources said the “issue was under examination.” Only last week, Shamir reiterated his invitation to Hussein to enter into peace talks with Israel and reminded him that the ‘address” was Israel, not Arafat.

Publicly, Israeli officals flatly deny that they are pleased or relieved that the Hussein-Arafat round of talks–like their previous one which broke off last April–produced no tangible results and no significant breakthrough. But independent observers here believe that the Shamir government cannot help but be gratified by this failure.

Had Hussein and Arafat reached a “meeting of minds” it would inevitably have triggered powerful and embarrassing pressures on Israel from the U.S. and other friendly countries to negotiate with some sort of Jordanian-PLO combination, the observers said

A true reflection of the thinking in at least some government circles was, these observers say, the warning last week by Science Minister Yuval Neeman, hardline leader of the ultra–nationalist Tehiya Party, that any Hussein-Arafat agreement would pose a mortal danger to Israel.

WON’T DEAL WITH ARAFAT

The Israelis, in any event, have reiterated their refusal to have dealings of any kind, direct or indirect with the PLO, under any circumstances. At the same time, they stressed Arafat’s adamant position in his talks with Hussein.

The PLO leader is still balking at public acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 242 which is a key condition for the U.S. to open a dialogue with the PLO; he is still unwilling to allow Hussein to represent the Palestinians in peace talks, they say.

ISSUE OF A CONFEDERATION

With respect to some sort of confederation between Jordan and a future Palestinian state on the West Bank — an element of President Reagan’s September I, 1982 peace proposals — Hussein is not prepared to contemplate such a scheme based on equality between the two entities. Similarly, Arafat is not prepared to agree to Hussein’s long advocated confederation scheme in which Jordan would be the dominant partner, the Israelis said.

They dismissed the assertion by a PLO diplomat, Khaled el-Hassan in Paris last Thursday, that the PLO and Jordan had agreed to confederation. There was no mention of this in the Amman joint communique, the Israeli officials noted.

WEST BANK LEADERS CLAIM SUCCESSFUL TALKS

In contrast to the Israeli view, several West Bank leaders who were in Amman and met with Arafat and Hussein, characterized their talks as “very successful.” According to Hikmat Al-Masri, a respected Palestinian member of the Jordanian Senate, the events in Amman constituted ” a historic turning point.”

He noted that this was the first time that a large, high level delegation from the West Bank conveyed the views of West Bank residents directly to Hussein and Arafat.

Maumoud Abu-Zuluf, editor of the pro-Jordan East Jerusalem Arabic daily Al Kuds, said the fact that Arafat and the King agreed to continue to pursue a peace settlement Jointly indicated the importance the give to public opinion in the occupied territories.

Rasnad A-Shawa, the deposed Mayor of Gaza who was not permitted by Israeli authorities to go to Amman, said yesterday that the Hussein-Arafat talks were “a good prelude toward ending Israel’s occupation” of the territory. A-Shawa spoke at the Labor Party’s conference here to which he was invited as a key speaker. He suggested that if the Labor Party returned to power, there would be a positive change in the government’s attitude toward the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the Council of Jewish Settlements on the West Bank demanded today that punitive measures be taken against the West Bank notables who met with Arafat in Amman in defiance of the government’s ban on such meetings. The settlers sent a telegram to the State Attorney insisting that Arabs as well as Jews must obey the law.

Their message was an indirect reference to the report by Deputy Attorney General Yehudit Karp, recently made public, which blamed Jewish vigilantism in part for the deteriorating situation on the West Bank and charged that Jewish settlers who violated the law almost always went unpunished.

But the government is not considered likely to take any action against the 38 West Bankers who went to Amman last week. All of those who met with Arafat are considered moderates and to punish them could touch off an international uproar against Israel.