Labor Backs Election Plan, at Least for Time Being

The Israeli Labor Party has resolved to back Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s proposal for elections in the administered territories, at least for the time being.

This emerged Sunday from a radio interview with Shimon Peres, vice premier and party chairman, who together with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin was briefed over the weekend on Shamir’s talks in Washington by Cabinet Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein.

Labor, however, and many non-party political observers, are by no means convinced that the election plan, as envisaged by Shamir, can provide a workable blueprint for an interim settlement in the administered territories.

Peres indicated in his interview that the Labor Party would consider an alternative proposal of its own “in the weeks or months ahead,” if the election scheme fails to take off.

He said he expects major problems ahead for the elections plan, as it moves toward actualization.

He asserted, moreover, that the Americans regard–and would define–the present phase of Middle East diplomacy as indirect negotiations between Israel and the PLO, conducted through U.S. mediation. “This is a result of the prime minister’s mission to the U.S.,” Peres said coldly.

Israel for its part, he added, remained opposed to any negotiations with the PLO.The vice premier and Labor leader spoke to Galei Zahal, the IDF radio station.

Both Galei Zahal and the state-run Israel Television and Israel Radio have been characterizing the upcoming U.S. mediation over the election proposal as indirect negotiations between Israel and the PLO.

DIFFERENCES PREDICTED

The written media, reporting from Washington in the aftermath of Shamir’s visit there, broadly concur and predict differences between Shamir and the administration as efforts proceed to implement the election proposal.

That effort will only get fully under way after Passover, observers assume. The premier will not be back in Israel until the end of this week.

Peres said Sunday that the Arabs’ initial rejection of the election scheme was predictable. He indicated that he did not necessarily think this was their last word, provided the practical problems could be resolved.

He listed these as:

The nature of the elections. He said he himself preferred political elections, since they were intended to evolve a negotiating representation for the Palestinians living in the territories.

Shamir has not made it clear if he will agree to such political elections or will insist instead that the elections are strictly for municipal leadership in each town and locality.

The eligibility of East Jerusalemites to vote. Israel unilaterally extended its sovereignty over East Jerusalem in 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War, but the rest of the world has not accepted or recognized this, and the Arabs insist that the 130,000-odd Arab residents of East Jerusalem should be part of any future Palestinian entity.

This eligibility question was one of the rocks upon which the 1979-82 autonomy talks foundered. Peres recommended that the issue be “left to last,” and not allowed to impede the chances of progress toward elections.

The question of outside supervision or observers. Peres said Israel has nothing to hide, and he himself would not object to U.S. congressional observers being present, similar to the Philippines presidential election when Corazon Aquino defeated Ferdinand Marcos.

Government sources here expect the United States to make a major effort to persuade the PLO not to reject the election scenario initially, by offering American assurances that autonomy will be linked to negotiations over final status, and, possibly, that the PLO will be involved directly in the final status talks.

While such undertakings would nominally not bind Israel, they would be designed to reassure the Palestinians that the process will not bog down in the first phase and that Washington would nudge Israel to the negotiating table when the time comes for final status talks.