Israel has had no official reaction to the report from Amman yesterday that King Hussein and Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat have agreed on a joint frame-work for negotiations with Israel. (See P.2 for reaction from Washington.)
But Premier Shimon Peres mentioned it today in the course of a question-and-answer session with youngsters who are pupils at the ORT school in Kiryat Motzkin, currently celebrating its jubilee.
“First of all, let’s see what they have agreed between themselves, ” Peres cautioned, “if they have agreed to make peace among themselves or if they are proposing peace with Israel. ” He stressed that “It is still not clear what they did in Amman. Let us wait patiently and not give way to nervousness.” The report from Amman, by Jordan’s official news agency, Petra, gave no details of the purported agreement.
CRITICIZES ISRAELIS’ MEETING WITH ARAFAT
Peres was critical of the meeting last weekend of six Israelis — three Jews and three Arabs — with Arafat at his Tunis headquarters. “I don’t see any use in such a meeting. If anyone wants to accept dictation from Arafat he doesn’t have to travel to him. It’s enough to write him a letter, ” Peres said. The six Israelis are members of the Progressive List for Peace, and two of the group hold Knesset seats.
Peres cautioned the youngsters not to “forget that Yasir Arafat and his organization continue, at this very moment, to direct terrorism against us, without discrimination between civilians and soldiers, men, women and children. To my mind, Israelis should not lend a hand, directly or indirectly to that organization, ” the PLO.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
