A statement by Jordan’s King Hussein expressing readiness to meet with Israel’s leaders was warmly welcomed here Sunday by Foreign Minister David Levy, who in turn invited the Jordanian monarch to Jerusalem, promising him “red carpet” treatment if he comes.
But other members of the Israeli Cabinet expressed doubts about the king’s sincerity and about the usefulness of such a meeting.
Hussein’s statement, made in an interview last Friday with the French weekly news magazine Le Point, marks the first time the king has publicly expressed his willingness to meet with Israeli leaders, though he is rumored to have held secret meetings with Israeli officials in the past.
He also said in the interview that he believes the Arab taboo against Israel is bound to disappear.
“Many Israelis live with the mentality of people besieged in a fortress,” he said. “They don’t realize what peace could bring to them. One could say the same about the Palestinians and the Arabs.”
“Face-to-face encounters ought to allow us all to dispel our fears,” he said.
Levy, the first Israeli minister to hail Hussein’s offer, said the king’s stated willingness to meet with Israeli leaders validates “our just demand for direct negotiations” with Arab nations.
The foreign minister, speaking to reporters following Sunday’s weekly Cabinet session, said he would give the king the “red carpet and a band’ upon his arrival.
CRITICISM FROM ARIEL SHARON
Levy said Hussein’s offer demonstrates that the Middle East peace process is not stuck, and that efforts should continue to create momentum. “This is a statement which indicates a direction which we must encourage,” Levy said.
He also called it a position of “realism and courage.” Levy suggested that any Arab leader who would follow Hussein would find in Israel a “ready partner for peace.”
The foreign minister questioned the wisdom of claims by Israeli ministers that the political process is stymied.
Among those who registered cynicism were Housing Minister Ariel Sharon of Likud and Science and Energy Minister Yuval Ne’eman of Tehiya.
Ne’eman said Hussein did not have much to offer, as he had given up his claim to the West Bank in 1988.
Sharon went further, reiterating his belief that Jordan should be declared the Palestinian state, since a majority of the country’s population is Palestinian.
He also demanded that Israel oppose a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the envisioned peace talks and said that the European Community should not be accorded any status in such negotiations.
His comments angered Levy, who quickly denounced Sharon’s statement that “Jordan is Palestine” as “not the position of the government,” and said that “this should. be made clear.”
He asked why it is that whenever there seems to be progress in the peace process, some people try to sabotage it.
He received comfort from Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who advised him not to pay attention to criticism. Shamir said anyone with reservations about the peace process can bring them up before the Cabinet.
KING’S SINCERITY QUESTIONED
But Shamir, while welcoming Hussein’s statement, suggested a wait-and-see attitude.
Avi Pazner, Shamir’s media adviser, said the premier is ready to meet with Hussein at any time and any place to advance the peace process. “Nothing is easier than to arrange a meeting between the two leaders,” he said.
It is not clear here how serious Hussein’s statement is, and whether he intends, in the near future, to launch a peace initiative in the manner of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who made a historic visit to Jerusalem in 1977.
Others have also questioned the timing of Hussein’s statement.
A senior Israeli government official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here Sunday he believes Hussein is concerned about the warming of relations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Syria, fearing that he could soon be left out of the peace process.
Others are of the belief that by making conciliatory statements, Hussein is only interested in rectifying the considerable damage he caused Jordan and his own image during the Persian Gulf crisis, when he threw his support behind Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
Political observers here think the king’s remarks were made more for the ears of Washington than Jerusalem.
The Israeli daily Yediot Achronot on Sunday quoted “a Jordanian personality close to the king” as saying that the Hashemite monarch had told U.S. Secretary of State James Baker at their meeting in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba last month that he was ready to drive to a bridge spanning the Jordan River “to meet with Israeli leaders for the sake of peace.”
(JTA correspondent Michel Di Paz in Paris contributed to this report.)
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