Knesset Adopts Government Position on Peace Negotiations by 68-37 Vote

The Knesset today, after a lengthy foreign policy debate marked time and again by bitter shouting matches between Premier Menachem Begin and the opposition Labor Alignment, adopted by a vote of 68-37 the government’s position on peace negotiations, a comfortable margin, and decisively rejected alternative proposals by Labor and other opposition factions. The Alignment proposals were defeated 64-32. The Labor Party postponed its no-confidence motion, probably until Wednesday, claiming that the hour was too late. (Related Cabinet story P. 3.)

Begin reported to the Knesset yesterday’s Cabinet decision to reject Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s request for a unilateral gesture of goodwill by Israel such as the return of El Arish in Sinai and Mr. Sinai to Egyptian civil administration. He told the MKs that he sent a letter to Sadat yesterday ruling out any one-sided move “as out of the question.”

Begin said he proposed instead that negotiations be continued, alternating between Jerusalem and Cairo or Haifa and Alexandria or anywhere Sadat choses. He said that if the Egyptian President agreed, Israel would offer to return El Arish and Mr. Sinai in exchange for a “permanent agreement on peaceful negotiations in a certain area ” He did not elaborate.

“The Cabinet has refused gestures… Policy is not gesticulations. We won’t give any presents, not even one grain of desert sand, “Begin said, repeating essentially what he had told reporters after yesterday’s Cabinet meetings.

He also confirmed that he had vetoed a proposed meeting between Labor Alignment chairman Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan in London earlier this month and vowed that in the future he would not approve meetings between opposition leaders and Arab statesmen. “This government is going to govern. Thank God the results are not so bad so far and future negotiations lie ahead,” he said.

LASHES OUT IN FURY

Begin lashed out in fury against the Labor Alignment, referring to its meeting last Thursday at which

The Premier accused the world press of “relying on the diagnoses of Dr. Peres and Dr. Allon” (former Foreign Minister Yigal Allon) who he accused of labeling him senile or worse. “Did I ever refer to Golda Meir as senile, though she served as Premier until the age of 75, or to Ben Gurion who served till 80?” asked Begin. He said he had known of Premier Levi Eshkol’s deteriorating health for months before he died but never said a word about it.

Begin also accused the Labor leaders of being character assassins. “You are used to character assassination. You began with Jabotinsky (Zeev Jabotinsky, founder of the rightwing Zionist Revisionist movement, who was Begin’s mentor) and ended with Ben Gurion,” he shouted. He claimed that Mapai, forerunner of the present Labor Party, called its Rafi breakaway group that included Ben Gurion and Peres “neo-fascist.” Peres and other Laborite back benchers retorted angrily. MK Yossi Sarid charged that the 1950s Begin characterized the Ben Gurion regime as “gestapo.”

Zerach Warhaftig, of the National Religious Party, the oldest member of the Knesset, begged Begin to desist from opening old wounds and return to political issues. But the Premier continued to the apparent consternation of some of his own supporters.