Inner Cabinet Puts off Till Sunday a Vote on Baker Compromise Proposal

Despite another urgent appeal from Washington for a speedy decision, Israel has once again postponed responding to U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s compromise proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.

The Inner Cabinet adjourned Wednesday without voting, after it failed to resolve conflicting Likud and Labor positions.

But when it meets again Sunday, the 12-member policy-making body will have to determine the future course of Israel’s peace diplomacy and the fate of its unity coalition government.

The Labor Party Central Committee is scheduled to convene Monday to formulate the party’s reaction to whatever the Inner Cabinet decides.

Labor already has made clear that a negative response to Baker will spell the end of its alliance with Likud. Baker himself has indicated he will drop his Middle East peace efforts and focus elsewhere.

But the Inner Cabinet declined to act Wednesday, even after Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir revealed that he had received another urgent telephone call from Baker last weekend insisting that Israel reach a swift decision.

Shamir said he tried to explain to the secretary how seriously all parties in Israel regard the fateful decision they must make. He told Baker the parties need more time to debate the options.

SHAMIR DECLINES TO CONFIDE IN BAKER

Shamir said he had declined Baker’s request to confide to him privately what his personal inclination was toward the U.S. proposals. The prime minister said he told the secretary of state he needed more time to formulate a position.

The core of the problem is the sharp split between Likud and Labor over which Palestinians can be included in initial talks with Israel.

The Likud bloc rules out including residents of East Jerusalem or Palestinians deported from the administered territories, saying it will only negotiate with residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Labor is more flexible on those issues.

Baker’s compromise attempted to overcome Likud objections by proposing that Israel readmit one or two deportees to the territories. The East Jerusalem residents, he said, could be residents of the territories who also maintain homes or offices in East Jerusalem.

The purpose of the talks, which would be hosted by Egypt, is to formulate rules for Palestinian elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the showpiece of Shamir’s May 1989 peace initiative. Israel would subsequently negotiate with the elected representatives over Palestinian self-rule in the territories.

Egypt, acting as a broker for the Palestinians, has accepted the Baker compromise, and the Palestine Liberation Organization reportedly has given its tacit blessing, as well.

The Labor Party is also prepared to accept the Baker formula, but Likud’s position is somewhat murky.

After much agonizing and several meetings at the Prime Minister’s Office over the past two weeks, a majority of Likud ministers said late Monday night that they would agree in principle to Baker’s formula.

But they conditioned that on the Labor Party abandoning its position in favor of allowing East Jerusalem residents to participate in the proposed elections.

Likud also demanded an advance undertaking from Labor that Israel would walk out of the preliminary dialogue in Cairo the moment that the PLO “takes over or penetrates” the talks.

Labor Party ministers, who met on Tuesday, flatly rejected the Likud conditions. They explained that the PLO could be expected to brag of its influence in the talks, but that should not be allowed to wreck the peace process.

THOUSANDS PROTEST IN JERUSALEM

Vice Premier Shimon Peres, the Labor Party leader, read a draft resolution by Labor’s ministerial delegation fully accepting Baker’s proposals.

Peres pressed hard for a decisive vote at Wednesday’s Inner Cabinet session. He agreed one of the six Labor members would not vote because of the absence of one of Likud’s men, Economics and Planning Minister Yitzhak Moda’i.

Moda’i, who is abroad, has just quit Likud’s Liberal Party wing because of his determined opposition to Shamir’s peace diplomacy. But he retains his Inner Cabinet scat and is expected to be present when it meets Sunday.

Laborite Mordechai Gur, who holds no portfolio, said there is better than a 50 percent chance a coalition crisis will be averted Sunday.

But at least one of his Labor colleagues was less optimistic. “No decision will be tantamount to a negative decision,” Energy Minister Moshe Shahal warned.

Likud’s position received a boost Wednesday, when thousands of demonstrators poured into downtown Jerusalem, demanding that Shamir reject the Baker proposal. They were joined by a parade of other demonstrators who marched through the city from their protest site in front of the U.S. Consulate.

The protesters included Jewish settlers from the territories and activists in the right-wing Tehiya, Tsomet and Moledet parties. They waved Israeli flags and held posters denouncing American pressure to join talks with the Palestinians. Knesset member Rehavam Ze’evi of Moledet suggested that Baker concentrate on Latin America and “leave us alone.”