Israeli leaders saw both positive and negative elements in Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s latest statements on a Middle East peace settlement contained in a Washington Post interview published Thursday. The biggest surprise and the one that has aroused most interest here was Sadat’s flat assertion that any Palestinian state created must be linked in some way to Jordan.
Foreign Minister Yigal Allon described it in a Cabinet briefing today as a possible “first step in the right direction.” He recalled that Sadat has made similar statements in the past but quickly retracted them. The fact that he has now repeated his view of a Palestinian-Jordanian linkage therefore is “not without significance,” Allon said.
On the other hand, he pointed out, Sadat was speaking of a third state between Jordan and the sea, a concept that Israel rejects out of hand. Israel has always insisted, however, that the Palestinian problem must be solved in the context of peace negotiations with Jordan.
Allon suggested that Sadat may have been signaling support for Jordan’s return to the West Bank and hinting to elements in the administered territories not to go overboard in strengthening their ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Israeli Foreign Minister warned that Sadat’s aim is to generate pressure on Israel. But, he noted, the United States is committed not to exert pressure on Israel for a Middle East settlement.
In his interview with Washington Post correspondent Thomas W. Lippman, Sadat said a Palestinian state must be formally linked with Jordan, insisted that Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories must be swift and total and completed in a single phase and that Lebanon must be a full participant in the Geneva peace conference.
NO DISPUTE BETWEEN ISRAEL, LEBANON
Allon’s initial reaction to the interview was that it could be a “positive development.” But he warned that if Sadat genuinely accepts Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 as the basis for a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict he should refrain from laying down prior conditions. “Rigidity in the Egyptian position could only encumber genuine peace efforts for our region,” Allon said during a talk in Ramat Gan Thursday. He referred to Sadat’s demand for a one-stage Israeli withdrawal “like the withdrawal from Sinai in 1956” and the inclusion of Lebanon in the Geneva talks.
With respect to the latter, Allon observed that “there is no dispute between Israel and Lebanon and there is no reason why peace negotiations cannot be held between them.” However, he felt that the question of Lebanese participation should be discussed only after “the Geneva conference is reconvened is originally constituted.”
Allon called the demand for withdrawal to the 1967 lines “a rigid and unrealistic position to take,” adding that “Israel will not give up defensible frontiers.” He said that “Whatever Israel can compromise on she will do so in free negotiations and without pressure and what she cannot compromise on she will not compromise on even under the highest pressure.”
Shlomo Avineri, director general of the Foreign Ministry, said on a radio interview yesterday that Sadat’s support for a Palestinian-Jordanian linkage might pave the way for resuming the Geneva conference “but it is certainly not enough” by itself.” He said that Arab insistence on PLO participation at Geneva remained a major obstacle and is unacceptable to Israel. On the other hand, Avineri thought that Sadat’s remarks could signify the beginning of a serious erosion of Arab support for the PLO and, if continued, could provide the basis for a dialogue between Israel and its neighbors.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE OFFING
The consensus here was that Sadat’s approach gave new substance to Israel’s refusal to accept a third state between itself and Jordan. Some circles now believe that the Rabat summit decision designating the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people was “dead and buried.” On the other hand, they saw a strengthening of political and military cooperation between the three confrontation states–Egypt, Jordan and Syria–with the objective of increasing pressure on Israel through the U.S. if negotiations materialize this year.
Israeli observers who regard Sadat’s approach as a significant gesture toward Israel, found support for their view in secret talks held in Amman this week between former Hebron Mayor Mohammed Ali el Jaabari and King Hussein and in a statement by Mayor Elias Freij of Bethlehem supporting a West Bank-Jordanian confederation. Jaabari and Freij are among the moderate West Bank leaders. PLO sources meanwhile have remained silent.
But most observers familiar with the Middle East scene bear in mind the erratic nature of inter-Arab politics. They noted that the PLO, decimated by the Lebanese civil war, reemerged as an influential factor after the Riyadh and Cairo conferences last year. Now their position seems to have deteriorated but the tide could turn again, the observers warned.
It was also noted that once again Sadat gained the initiative in peace proposals made to the news media, not to Israel. And Israel once more is in the position of reacting to the latest Egyptian gambit.
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